To Be Entralled Once More
by Ruma Afinity
Summary: I was sent to gather the Nine tailed demon fox for my master. Now Im stuck escorting around a Ninja thats barly old enough to date. Pity I can't just get rid of her...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naurto. Please attach to all further chapters.

I threw my long spiky blond hair back over my shoulders, the red tips flashed across my vision as I focused on the Kyubi no Kitsune. Three to four hundred meters tall, a few hundred in length and nine tails that writhed in the darkness. The whole animal was surrounded by a dark ethereal fire crackling under the full moon. Nine Tails had large burning red eyes with sharply silted pupils. Not to mention the soft pointed ears; long snoot; and a soft shiny coat. I had to admit it did look extremely cute. Granted I was unable to feel the dark malice that I was sure the mid ranking demon fox was giving off.

I myself was sitting on top of the large rock face that formed the backbone of the leaf village. Hidden village, I corrected my self. It contained a few sizable commercial districts, several markets, and a few parks. Massive walls loomed around it to cover the large housing developments in a protective embrace. Leaf village was nestled against the massive mountain formation; etched with large faces of hokages past range behind me.

It certainty had seen better days.

Leaf shinobi had fortified themselves in broken impromptu lines to defend the sprawling village they called home. I felt kinda of bad for them, I knew from experiences what home was worth. The lack of one made me want to reach out, to tear the demon fox to prices. I wouldn't of course but I wanted to give into the impulse. Besides I was waiting for the hokages to arrive.

The Third had arrive on the front lines seconds ago. The Fourth Hokage was to arrive, and would do so upon the largest and strongest of the toad summons. He would execute a complex set of hand seals and forge a link to the Shinigami. It was the only thing that the leaf could hope to work.

The Fourth Hokage was indeed on time, and stood majestically on top of an old ugly toad. Seriously, that toad was ugly compared to my coy orange fox. Dark reddish skin and all those warts hidden by the blue coat, he even carried what appeared to be a large tanto. Don't even get me started on how that scar splayed across his eyes made his complexion look marred and hideous. He looked haggard and war worn, even if he was just barley pushing past two hundred and fifty meters tall.

I noticed for the first time at this point just how much me and Minato looked alike. Though he was decked out in his full ninja regaila, and I adornd with the railaments of the fox god. Dark black pants and shirts ending in a crimson orange Fire. The tradtional cloth tie a deep burgundy red and silver braided coil that knotted and served as a weapon belt for my Fox Blood. A plain black, non embellished unbelted robe, embroidered with a large sandy red fox tail that ran from hip to hem, slung over my shoulders and fell open across my form It hid my ninjato. A silver chain hung from neck that held a fox tail pendent rested just under my collarbone. The ensemble was fairy common god hand wear; granted as long as it was laden with the symbols and icons of the God we served it was common. Our eyes matched, a deep shade of blue that boarder incandescents. My face wasn't as jagged as his, more rounded, and it was adorn with a set whiskers on each side of my nose. His golden locks were longer, just as unruly, and jutted outward that fell to the middle of his back. My blond locks turned a sunset orange to a brilliant red that stopped just before the middle of my shoulder blades.

The fourth had started his seals and I could feel the Great Seals slide, part and unwind like clockwork, the meta-physical runes grinded and turned, unwound themselves as the conciseness of the death god him self pierced his way through web of gates that were now visible to my sapphire eyes. The pale spectral ghost materialized behind the Fourth Hokage. My queue to begin. I bounded off the stone monument into the night air, unusually hot and stifling; fell freely from the rock face. I landed on the top of the dark red wood of the administrative building. The air whooshed out ward at my sudden halt. No time to admire my impressive fall. I bounded freely from roof to roof; blocks vanished beneath me as I slipped through the heavy air.

The distance faded to nothing and landed just behind the large heinous toad. None of the ever alert shinobi even noticed my passing, nor did they see the network of runes etched in the night sky where the stars should be. I vaulted, clearing the toad, repulsed that I would have to even come in contact with the slimy icky amphibian. My Innocent's Chain appeared in my hand.

"I can see some sort of creature, Sarutobi; this must be the god of death. It looks like its going to-" The fear was evidant his body shook and his voice trembeld. Unfortunetly what ever the god of death was going to do, it was sadly not going to finish.

My chain snaked out wrapping around the Death god. It was nothing more than a chain of small water droplets, tears of those who achieved redemption. They glistened, small stars brilliantly splayed out against the back of the toads navy blue jacket. The same stars slithered through the cloudy smoke that had taken the shape of the death god, and the large runes burned, searing the night sky.

He howled in pain he could not feel. Ignored cries only I could hear dripped of sheathing fury. I didn't watch the clock work of the great seals reach down like a tornado; latching on to and impaling the shinigami. The cacophony of visuals behind me was ignored as the Fox Blood slid from its sheath.

It hurt to think of how many time I ended a human life this way. It hurt worse to know that this way left the most people alive. Even now, as the shinigami was dragged, tooth and nail into the endless heavens, I buried just under half a meter of god steel into the summoner's rib cage.

I hated to kill good men. Loathed it and despised it with a fury and distain that few pacifists could match. I didn't have time to ponder; The Third Hokage would respond as quickly as a ninja was capable. My hand, covered in the blond ninja's blood, painted the frogs back as the Fourths body inched downward collapsing into a boneless heap.

Energy and will, a considerable portion of my strength and might funneled into the circle I had drawn upon the summons's back. The necklace appeared; the bars of the new cage materialized and wound themselves around the large cuddly fox. A brilliant explosion with the flair of a supernova blinded the entire village. It was child's play to focus threw the pale greens and searing blues to the small streak that jetted into the night sky deeper into the Village of the leaf. The Nine tailed demon fox trapped in the trinket therefore, owned by me. I replaced my small slightly curved blade into its sheath.

I traced the pendent as it whisked through the air at startling speed. The pendent wrought of silver in the shape of nine bushy tails that I spent more than a year and a half crafting. I forgot to place the recall spell in the damn thing? All those nights I spent gouging and engraving the smallest details in the fur of the tails, even changing the pattern to reflect the color change on the tip of a fox tail, and I couldn't even remember to add a simple basic recovery spell?

To say I was floored was an understatement.

* * *

The explosion was brilliant and defining. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Standing upon the summons of the fourth hokage, the robes of office that signified me as the third hokage whipped around in the wall of force that had been generated in the massive blast. All the techniques I knew raced furiously through my mind, and to my surprise it was a new one. I knew my appointed replacement was incredible, but to destroy the dreaded demon by channeling the soul of a god? I turned to see why Minato had stopped, I assumed he had been to focused on what he was trying to accomplish.

The sight of his vacant eyes would never leave me. His blood flowed freely from him as his lifeless face grew ridged, etched with fearful determination. His classy altered robes of office stained a deep coppery red as the crumpled heap that had been a son to me laid motionless on the back of the enormous toad.

A form shimmered into existences, his profile almost had me cry out in shock. He looked so much like the fourth hokage, a bit shorter, but the eyes were almost exact copies of glass ones at my feet. The blood had been moved, a large circle intricately crafted of the darkening liquid, the same deep crimson that dripped off his hand.

A long time ago, I would have opted to let the man explain himself. That time ended a few moments ago. In this time, I embraced the harsh hatred and fury.

* * *

I didn't even notice that I let all the charms and covers that I had up to pull this whole thing off unnoticed fade away. Not a wise choice in the presences of one of the leafs greatest shinobi. It wasn't until the kunai was racing towards me that I even remembered what I was doing. I didn't have any time to deal with angry ninja so I denied him battle, using my great speed dodge his impromptu attack and to traverse after the necklace that I had so foolishly lost. If no one came in contact with it, the amulet was still defined as mine. The majority of Konoha had evacuated, my demon falling into a lesser traveld district.

None of the twelve hundred contangacy plans I had made took this into acount. The most feared demon known to these human mortals landed in the hands of a small roseate child. She was being caried by her mother, the father attmpting to lead them to safty had stoped when the small neckless land in thire child's arm. The mother held the child with both arms. She cluched the babe in panic as she tride to observe what had potintaly harmed here precious angel. The father reached out about to pluck the amulet from the babes hand.

"Cease!" I barked out. Both parnts eyes snaped to me in the wake of my screech. Great im panicing now. High pitched tones, frantic sound and a flurry of movement betrayed the outward calm and infallibility I was suppose to have. I came into the light of the darkened vacant street. The hard packed dirt ground was littered with debris from damaged weapons to shattered wood and newsprint. The only unbroken lamp hung over the small family. I stepped forward as I drew up to my full height. My attire, unstained from the blood I had previously spilt clung to me, showing the lean taunt muscle that I possessed. I didn't have brood shoulders and my stature wasn't that great I stood barley taller than the mother. I refused to let that fact slow me down. I let the confidence I certainty didn't fell roll off me in great waves, and projected my voice to sound strong deep, and filled with authority.

"If you take that from your child, I doubt very much any of you will live." The mother returned her attention to her child and the tailed pendent that the baby held. The fathers hand had froze in mid grab. He eyed me warily as he slowly retraced his hand. Dark narrow green eyes on a long face looked well on the man that stood taller than me. I glanced at the mother. She was tall for a woman. Long skinny arms and legs gave her a wispy wiry look. The child was asleep curled up around a small chain necklace that held the Kyubi no kitsune. Hard to believe that the small girl wrapped in a pale pink blanket could sleep holding onto an angry demon.

"Even I can not simply relive her of it. I wouldn't expect to live long myself, but I am willing to barter for the babble." If no one else shows up I can make this work. I can get my demon. I can-.

"I don't see you living much longer." I let a ninja sneak up on me? Sure enough the old man had a kunai man placed in the perfect spot to execute me the same way I murdered the fourth.

"Hey, nice to see you old man!" Way to loud and I couldn't even sound menacing. Time to change tactics.

"Care to inform me why the fourth Hokage had to die?" The thirds voice was shaper than kunai and twice as dangerous.

* * *

"The pendent your daughter caries holds the fox that just vanished. Trade ya for it." His voice washed over me, I couldn't tell you what it sounded like. It was a smooth wave of sound and as slick as oil. The revered hokage stood behind what I had mistook for the fourth. My wife stood to my left, carrying our relatively new born child. She was a few months old and ever the sweet temperamental baby. So much like her mother I was told.

"Any thing at all, money to power, a life time supply of ramen, heck I could even worship the ground you walk on if it will trade me the fox." He flashed a wining smile and I found myself intrigued by his words. Something just screamed salesman and I fell for it like an idiot. I think it might have been that he remind me so much of the fourth.

The hokage stood beside the fox like blond just as I stood beside my wife. Some where in the back of my mind something didn't seem right.

"Please, I just want to help." I expelled my breath extravagantly. Something made want to offer my life for the shinny pendent that my daughter was clutching. I pondered as my my wife beat me to any offers I could make.

"Help her." She softly whispered beside me. "Save Sakura, make it so she won't die. Make the fox go away." In a way it made sense, I was a father. I should be willing to do what ever it took to keep her safe. My wife was a wiry thing and she seemed to be pleading. I guess that shiny thing was harmful. "Please" she continued. " Worship her if thats what it takes but save her."

The blond man spoke so fast with the largest of grins I had ever seen. "A hundred years. I will give Sakura a hundred years. You will not ever have to worry for your child; it will be my life before hers." He paused to step forward. He turned and glanced at my village leader, a wining endorsement for this ninja if I saw one. "Mind backing off Hokage? I need to greet my charge." He went on a bit more but my wife started to sway. I tuned out whatever the young ninja was saying in order to check on my wife.

* * *

Sarutobihad been quiet during the entire exchange. His pursuit of knowledge and hope to garner details, that would help him battle a man who could kill the fourth Hokage, cost him the chance to stop me. He evaluated me, still wondering where the child that he had intend to seal had vanished to.

"I give you, as proxy of Sakura, my word as the god hand of Sasarius that I will uphold my side of our bargain." The third hesitated, despite being a warrior of stealth and deception, he held honor very highly. "Twelve years, I need twelve years to make sure I can protect your daughter." I stepped forward and gently took the child from her mother's arms. I grasped the pendent from baby, noting the dazed look on the mother. Words settled around me. I was bound to the child. I would protect the child from even the master I served. The mother was lost, to much for her to deal with and she simply fainted. Her husband managed to catch her and struggled to hold his wife. Inspecting the child. I turned and offered the child to the old man. "Keep her safe for me I have much to do." He took the child from me. She received her father's eyes and light pink locks from her mother. She would probably grow up to be cuter than the nine tails.

Pendent in hand, objective completed, I gated out. Leaving the fire country behind, I looked back through the smoke and devastation the nine tails had caused to the small child in Sarutobi protoctive embrace. I smiled softly at the bundel as I returned to the den of my master. He would be angry to lose me for a hundrend years, but I had the demon he wanted. Before proceding to meet the Fox god, I spoke to the child that couldn't understand or hear the words I was speaking.

"I, Uzimaki Naruto, will make sure your safe. Belive it." It was soft and certain, filled with the resolve that every promise should hold Maybe I should of checked to make sure I all the details right. Some how though i felt this could work to my advantage. Still, I had twelve years to set myself up to gaurd this Sakura.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. (true story)

Authors notes: I need a beta reader to help me catch all the mistakes and such. I read through and proof it but another set of eyes always helps. Send me an email If your interested.

* * *

Central power and administration, council chamber, records and mission center. A convoluted way to say the seat of the government. It was a large red building, decorated with the large fire symbol. I always thought it looked like an aspiring traffic cone. Built by the First Hokage, who used his unique wood jutsu to craft the outer structure with thick walls He had created it with a hard red wood that was extremely resilient to fire and something that didn't splinter but rather powdered. It also held an office that I spent more time in than my own home.

I would arrive in my office typically before the sun had decided to wake up. Leave after it had settled into bed the following night. In which time I would; review, sign, route around to others, request more information or send out a variety of prevalent documents. Many documents, printed on enough paper to publish thousands of copies of War and peace, Ninja edition. If I was lucky I would have time to eat lunch, and dinner, and maybe even get a glass of water. At lest I get to say I'm hokage though.

Glancing down, at the report in my hand, taken from the stack that set on my large wooden desk, I noted it was a simple replacement request. The entire stack that sat on my right was nothing more than relatively unimportant task, reports and request. Still it would be at lest an hour before I managed to add my signature to every one of these pages. Fortunately, I had many years of practiced with this kind of mind numbing task. Left to my own thoughts I continued to sign the papers. Placing the large stack of papers on the outer edge of my stout wood desk, I reached over to another and aimlessly picked one from the half dozen or so piles that were stacked in various places. Reading the cover, I set them aside. Setting up and assigning new Genin teams and instructors was not something to be done in a blind haze, distracted by idle wondering.

Maybe if I simply just ignored it, the entire desk would be clear. With out all the documents I could open the large set of windows behind me. It would certainly brighten up the darken office. I kept the shades drawn to prevent my self from being blinded by the glare. My desk would reflect the sunlight like mirrors, at lest it would have prevented me from seeing my filling cabinets. They lined the room, tall, black with silver handles full of forms and records. This created an open space large enough for four to five people to stand comfortably. The walls of the office had a few portraits of the men who once held the title of Hokage. Last in line was the photo of a young ninja, Minato Namikaze. It cast my mind back to that day in a darken street.

Almost twelve years at this point. Twelve years in which I cursed my mistake. Worse than the day I let my student, the legendary snake ninja, flee after slaying the two jonin I had brought with me. Minato had become something more to me than just a friend or comrade. The Yellow flash was truly part of my family, some one I had in trusted with the burden of the entire village of leaf. It had been a difficult decision to place that much weight on the young ninja. How the man had whined begged and cried for the first few months of the task always brought a smile to my old visage. I sobered remember a man that could of past off as his son.

He was cunning, I had to admit. Fast as well, faster than any thing I had seen before. The way he had played with the emotions in the air, slowly pressing the mother into giving him exactly what he had wanted. I doubt our own head of integrations, could have forced that woman into a corner so fast. I had him in knifes reach but I had waited. Observing him and his surroundings, checking for allies in the shadows, traps, and attempting to see if I was trapped in a gen jutsu. I hadn't been and he simply vanished. No smoke, no replacement, no distraction of any kind. Simply there one moment than gone the next.

It was almost like the Fourth Hokages jutsu. His high speed teleportation technique was something to be reckoned with. Yet the man was gone, even all the Anbu I had sent out to search for him had returned with nothing. No tracks or scents or even a whisper of his passing. I believe he truly simply disappeared. To where, I'm probably better off not knowing. Whatever the man had been, he was no ninja. I wasn't sure he was even human any more. Glancing at the clock, I realize I still have way too much to do to keep to my idle wanderings.

Reaching over and sliding one of the large stack to the for front I read the title. B-ranked mission reports from a variety of chunni teams. Snagging my pen I proceed to Begin with the first one, only to be interrupted by a soft poof of smoke.

"Um, Hokage-sama." In the clearing smoke stood a Jonin ranked ninja. Tall spiked white hair, Leaf insignia on the for head protector that was pulled loosely over his right eye. His left focused on the bright Orange book held loosely with a single hand. He was dressed in standard Ninja attire. Flak vest with more pockets than necessary, hip pouch and kunai holster at waist and on the side of his left leg. Tall with limbs that went on for miles. Under his weapon holster he covered up with simple lose dark blue pants and a black shirt with medium length sleeves. Hatake Kakasih.

"Yes Hayate. What is so urgent that you were required to arrive unannounced." Setting the stack down secretly grateful that I could get away from the mindless task.

Scratching the back of his neck with his free hand, he stowed the book away. "Well Hokage…"

* * *

"I must say, god hand, despite your less than stellar retrieval of this demon, that its capture was a well played choice." Sasarius intoned as he idly observed said demon doze in the few stray sunbeams. Sasarius was my lord and master. It towered over me currently assuming the guise of a fox. Large golden eyes peered intently at his smaller counter part. Deep golden red fur wrapped his long slender body, supported by long slim legs. His tail was thick and bushy that represented almost a fifth of his whole body. And he was big, four times my own height (one and two/thirds meters).

His fox rested curled up on a large rock that set near a small winding creak. My master sat in the small clearing of the dense jungle he had made for himself. Surrounded and enclosed by lofty trees, most of which were imposed over Sasarius. Dense green vegetation spilled into the clearing, even in said clearing; I stood in a quarter of a meter of various vegetations. My god had not directed the comment at me so I waited. The fox simply examined the snoozing demon. The demon, which I thought was adorable, was the splitting image of your common red fox. Well other than the nine tails he had curled up against him, all ending in brushy white tips.

"God hand Uzumaki, your new standing orders are the retrieval of the other eight demons that are located with the realm Shinobilth. One hundred years." I took the harsh bite in his words as the dismissal it was intended to be. My mind had all ready filled in what he didn't tell me. The assignment of orders was a direct task and I was to fulfill it by any means necessary. I was also giving freedom of movement to complete it when and how I wanted to. As well as given a max time length, one that coincide with the only other problem. I had to protect some kit from anything that was stupid enough to try and hurt the gal. I'm glad I took the time to brush up on looking intimidating and a few other tricks to make a decent bodyguard.

With a short bow, I snapped of a perfect about face and marched out of forest. Stepping with a precision and bearing that would have made a drill Sergeant cry, I marched past the last tree and into a stone floored room.

Runes etched and radiated outward from the center of the large circular room I now stood in. Behind me was a stone archway with the legend, Sasarius, engraved in highest point of the plain gray stone. Set along the walls were a bakers dozen of similar archway all bearing legends of the deity that resided behind them. The same sun that had sipped through forest, radiated down, illuminating the splotched marble of the floor. Before I could resume my march to the center of the room to gate out into the realms beyond, a being materialized in front of me.

I recognized the being instantly; he was one of my personal heroes. He pushed a bit over one and three/quarter meters. His hair was longer than he was tall and was braided tightly, a rich tapestry of gold's, silvers and night black strands. He wasn't very broad; didn't ever give off any hint of the strength that he possessed. Like all god hands, he was decked out in cloths that advertised the god he had once served. Simple black slacks embroidered with Twisted's symbol in the bottom. A Short sleeve shirt that was held together with cloth ties, the same endless black that adorned the same symbol at the bottom hem. A braided cloth, matted silver and black, rope tightly knotted to his waist. His typical large black vestments fell over his smallish frame. I couldn't see the large in printed God sign on the back of it but I knew it was there. The hilt and pommels of his two weapons were visible about his left side. Each adorned with the bent cross and oval that symbolized him as the former god hand of the Deity Twisted.

As far as god hands went, Talus Azaroth split the title of best god hand off all time with a few others. Ranked best god hand of the current time and held the title of most other god hands killed. He was pretty much every thing I wasn't. Granted I still held the title of Ramen King, for having a ramen collection of over twelve hundred thousand bowls, but that didn't stack up too well to the only free god hand reality has ever seen. Nor did I have the fourteen hundreds other titles and honors he bore. I had only a few dozen to my own name. Merely ranked in the upper three hundreds which placed me in the worst fifty ranked god hands of current time.

My arm flashed out, plucking the object that was moving at high speed towards my head. Brown paper bag that had wisps of steam lazily wandering upward, imprinted with a symbols. Judging by the weight, two bowls of ramen, unknowing flavor. I glanced back to Azaroth, brow raised. Bastard, I owed him something now.

"Poll is that your going to get your self killed before you can make you anticipated third move." I just traded two bowls of ramen for a small bit of gossip that I had picked up; I came out on top in that trade.

"Pity, I was so sure that I could clean up with a few well placed bets." He raised his left eye brow over his dark storm blue eye. His right dark dusky hazel eye remained half closed as he looked me over. "I see you lost the robe you wore, did you incinerate it like I asked you to?" While it was true that I had dropped the long robe, I refused to destroy it. Long robes were impractical for most forms of battle, and in the environment I was dropping in most impracticalities were dropped or ignored. Not to be outdone I respond with a blistering riposte

"Last time I checked your vestment just impersonating a dress." Not the best but it did strike home, I think. "Banter aside, what brings you to the pantheon of the primal animal gods?"

"Word is you're being sent of to box and package a set of demons for whole sell. I want to avoid the lines." He remarked dryly. As expected the man was on top of every thing. Even though the order was just received, the effects of acquiring The Nine Tails had been documented. Since Shinobilth fell out side any owned territory, only god hands could make a move over it. It was inevitable that the rest would eventually have to be gathered. I also hadn't made any secret of barricading it against almost any possible incursions. "Also seems to be that you're off to protect some mortal in the same place."

"Not to get off topic but you still haven't explained why you're here." I cut him of before he could continue. "Tigers still miffed you slipped away with his cub last time you were here. An impressive feat I must say." The bastard didn't even respond. I knew he was here to exchange the Tiger god's offspring. I couldn't wipe the smug look of his face.

"My my my still improving all the time I see." He held up his hands. "Let us not batter and scheme. While I am here to exchange words with the tiger god, I don't happen to have his cub, or even possession of it. Off to deal with the vixen?" Not good. I still wasn't sure how that part of things got out.

"I might be. Any ways really I must be going, need to pick up some chains." I placed my hand inside the folds of my cloths and withdrew a small stack of photographs. "I need an innocent chain, a few fates chains, some hell chains, an archipelago if you got it. A dozen light chains and three isha isha chains." He stared at me; I knew he was wondering exactly how much it would cost him to kill me where I stood. Talus closed his left eye, than opened his right. A dark chocolate brown narrowed at me for a moment. As soon as the brow raised and the incredulous stare bore into me, I breathed a silent sigh of relief. He wasn't going to end my life…yet.

"The hell do I look like to you, a chain merchant? A seller of fine chains? A chain-"I cut him off before he could list all the variants of chain merchant.

"Well, than I suppose ill just have to find some one who wants this set of photos than. Pity I went to all the trouble to get them autographed by the entire team. I think Tatartus like this group of high school crime fighters in short skirts, as well as, warriors of love and justice. I think this shot of Miss Moon here posing is-." I had taken the photo out of the stack to glance at. I didn't even have a chance to notice when I stopped looking at the picture and started looking at the stone archways. "That's the fastest I've seen any living thing move ever I believe."

"Stuff it" Azaroth bit out as he tossed me a large heavy wooden crate. Plain, looked and felt like oak. I caught the cast and took a peak inside. Don't even want to know how he knew what chains I wanted, even if I wanted him to inform me how he knew I needed the chains. Glancing back at him, I started to consider ways to trap and entangle him into getting him to spill. He placed his hand on one of the arch way before gazing over his shoulder with his azure eye. I still needed to work out how he knew about the babe as well.

"Its basic god hand. You didn't Barricade against just god hands or other outsiders; you ensured that nothing could extend influence into the realm. Not to mention, you added wards to blind us on this side of the seals. If you were just after demons you could have managed with just the god hand precautions. So I'm positive you got something else going down in Shinobilth. Since you wouldn't have taken the capture of the first demon entirely serious, it stands to reason that you blotched the task. Knowing you, not a chance you would go as far as you did for anything but a lady. I'm sure I don't need to point out how I'm aware that you're after demons. All that's left is that you would need the chains for the sake of having them. No god hand would go unprepared. Only thing I don't know is why you haven't just killed the gal and moved on." His tone was light. Not a single pause in his speech let on that he had already considered the alternate possibilities.

I'm not sure if ill ever be that good. I had to fight the rising envy at the ease in which he was able to distinguish fact from fiction. The casual dropping of information that held value. The manner in how he was able to derive my thoughts and actions to be. I suppose though, if I was good enough to win freedom from my master, I would at lest make a challenge for the old god hand. I didn't even offer that I disgraced my self with an open ended promise. One that locked out an easy effective solution.

"Well all that aside the chains there are the ones I would have taken on such an objective." With a light swish of his coat he vanished under the arch way. I stood for a moment eyeing the spot he had vacated. The Talus Azaroth, one the top god hand, would have chosen the same chain set? It was a small indirect complement but, a complement none the less. Shaking my head, I paced back to the center of the room. Once there I gated out.

* * *

Today was the day that I would wrest a date from the Sasuke Uchiha. My hair was styled just perfectly today. Long, shiny, felt like silk and fell perfectly about me. It was a perfect day and I was sure my long pink locks would get me a date with dark and mysterious, yet totally to die for Sasuke. Brushing away the slight nagging felling that told me a date with him wouldn't be fun. A date where I would be forced to masquerade as someone who I wasn't. At lest my alter ego would shut up; not to mention I could rub it in Ino-pigs face.

A small smile crept to my face at the thought. My inner self cheered at the prospect. Discreetly I kept my calm demeanor even though I wanted to scream out to the world in cheer. Even though I knew it wouldn't last. I mean really I was only twelve. Even true love doesn't last that long. It didn't mean they wouldn't have a long meaningful relationship. It was just I probably won't ever get further than Chunin; Sasuke would of course rise to the top becoming an elite Jonin. We would date, make chunin together and have a lengthy loving relationship. All the while, I would have ample time to gloat and rub it in to all those girls that were mean to me.

I caught a flash of blond in the corner of my eye. The street around me wasn't too crowed. It was lined with shops and stalls. Merchants were pitching there wears to the hoping to entice some of the early morning crowed. I turned my head to glance at the person who had fallen into step beside me. And though I denied it later, a striking pink blush painted my face when I did.

He was definitely a looker. Mesmerizing eyes, a most brilliant blue. A cute round face, very boyish looking, but very charming. Tight black cloths clung to him and showed off his lean toned muscle. I could see a winding orange bushy tail that was printed up the side of his pant leg. He wore an odd belt, it appeared to be a red rope, and his shirt had a coiled fox tail on the back. We were the same height but that didn't really mater, he would probably get much taller in a few years. His hair was a sunny blond, very spiky, and I think he dyed the tips red. After all, hair doesn't typically go from blond to red naturally.

"Um, hi." I offered timidly when he turned to meet my eyes. He smiled at me. A smile filled with simple happiness.

"Hey ya" He glanced quickly down to the tips of my toes, and back to the top of my pink locks. "Hey that symbol on yer dress, uh skirt, shirt thingy. Progenitor's right? A plain unbroken circle of white?" Dress, skirt, shirt thing? How this idiot could not recognized a cheongsam, or mandarin gown was beyond me. It had the sleeves, the cloth ties that were placed on the left breast, and it hung long just past my knees. My inner self was moaning about how the good looking ones had to be morons. I would of retorted to her That Saskue is both good looking and brilliant but I was caught up on his second statement.

"Progenitor? Like as in the first?" I was pretty sure that progenitor meant first, like as a mother of all ninjas.

"No as in The Progenitor, with Tatartrus, you know? Large guy, hair that sticks up for at lest 2 meters over him?" The blond waved his hand over his head, shaping out an imaginary tower of hair. I shook my head slowly. I might of started to scoot a bit away from him as we continued down the street. "No? Well you can't miss him if you see him. He's well, big, with big big hair. Anyways I'm Naruto." He offered his name with a slight flourish and a small bow.

"Well I'm Sakura." I gave him a small bow in way of introduction. I never realized it was hard to walk and bow at the same time. Straitening out I fell back in stride with Naruto. "The circle is my clans symbol in case you were wondering." He scratched the back of his neck nervously. My blush that I never got earlier returned with full force. The soft grin on his face with the nervous eyes was simply too hard to ignore. He threw his other arm around me. It fell over my shoulder and he dragged me softly to his side. I immediately tried to think of something to say to him. My mind drew nothing earth shattering to say. Just things like what if Saskue saw, and how nice and warm his hand felt resting on my shoulder blade.

"Nice ta met ya Sakura-chan!" He exclaimed out exuberantly. He threw his hand forward while he glanced at me with those sparkling blue eyes. He opened his mouth to say something before he paused. He mutter something that sounded like "Ichiraku Raman"

He forced my whole body to pivot, than marched me to the small raman stand that sat on the side of the intersection we had begun to walk thorough. He pushed the banners that hung in front of the stand, bearing the large kanji for Ichiraku, aside. Than he swung me up on one of the stools before the counter top. A tall portly man with a white cap upon his head and a warm grandfather face greeted us with a warm welcome.

"Why hello there, welcome to Ichiraku." He bustled about the stand. Gathering various implements with finely honed skill, he began to prepare the base ingredients he would need for what ever his guest would order. I glanced around noting that no one else had stopped in for ramen. Naruto had taken the set next to me and tracked every movement the old man made with hawk eyes. The whole event seemed a little surreal at this point. I didn't have time to be eating ramen. Especially ramen, it would utterly destroy my diet.

"Um Naruto, I really need to get to class today, if I don't hurry…" I broke off he, wasn't even listening to me! That loser, he drags me here for some unknown reason and than he has the nerve to ignore me. "Hey Naruto. I am talking to you here!" His response.

"Hey old man ill take yer miso and she will have the most fattening thing you got." I was stunned. I felt my hands shake with indignation. My eyes twitched, my inner ego burned to pound this guy into the ground. Hell I wanted to pound his stupid whiskers of his face. I really can't believe I didn't notice the fact that he had whiskers that stuck out underneath his eyes. But that did not matter at the moment, even as he grabbed a pair of chopsticks out of the container on the counter no, what mattered was this boy needed to be pounded.

"So as I was saying Sakura, were going to be great friends." He hit me with a brilliant dazing grin. His blues closed. I just hit him.

I balled my hand into a tight fist, and swung it at him. I remembered after I had done it why Iurka-sensei always told us not to hit someone with a closed fist. Pain flashed through my hand. A soft burning and a dull throbbing. I shook the appendage to try to alivate the pain. His head was harder than most boulders; I slammed my hands on the counter top.

The blond baka just sat that with his head cocked to the side. He taped his chopsticks into the countertop for a moment than turned to look at me. He kept his head cocked as he raised his eyebrows. "What was that for?"

"What was that for?! You drag me hear against my will. Order me some hideously fattening dish that's going to throw my diet off entirely. All the while you totally ignore me! On top of that you're going to make me late for class! I'm leaving!" I yelled, shouted, shrieked, and glared for good measure. The jerk! He had that one coming to him. Pushing my self off the stool, or at lest I tried to get up and storm out of the small stand.

A sharp stinging sensation flared on the back my neck. I instinctively tried to throw my hands between me and what ever had struck me. Plopping back on the worn stool, my pink hair flew wildly about as I searched frantically. My eyes rested on the blond boy. Amused grin still plastered across his face; chopsticks held like a drummer in his hand still taping on the counter. I attempted to rise once more, only to have the same sharp pain flash across the back of my neck. Wooden splints taped a simple beat into the counter top. Keeping my eye on them slowly rising up from my padded stool, movement flickered: I managed to place the back of my hand between my neck and the dammed chopsticks.

"You know you should really eat more than you do, no good to starve to death. Sides Sakauuuraaa" His voice drawled out amusement and enjoyment evident. "Yer to pretty to die on me here." Twelve years of life were not enough for me to understand how I was angry, embarrassed, frustrated and flustered. All at the same time. Not sure how to respond, I slugged him once more.

"Isha na, Sakura, so mean." He rubbed his cheek; the skin had begun to blossom bright red.

"Listen you." The pinket raised her slightly bruised fist. "I don't know what your trying to do but I'm late for class. Iurka-sensei is going to be angry enough as it is. Now, I'm leaving. Hit with me with those chopstixs one more time and I'll, I'll" Its relly hard to think of menacing threats when you don't think about them. I considerd a few but they all sounded hackneyed and lame.

"The raman is done." The shopkeep had placed two bowls of steaming ramen had been placed in front of us. With an cheery enjoy, he retreated. "Be impolite to not eat. Isha ga, Sakura-chan?" I stared. First to the ramen than back to him.

"You planed that didn't you?" I'm sure I sounded flummoxed. His grin became smug..

"Why of course I didn't!" He sounded so jaunty in his proclamation. I might of believed him. He sounded sure, confident and radiated a sense of innocents. Of course, his sniggering was a dead giveaway. Leveling him with a searing gaze of annoyances, I sighed and condemned my diet to the executioners block.

To my surprise, the fattening concoction of noodles, meats and vegetables was extremely savory. The thick broth, that contained the array of ingredients, was just as tasty. Though I wouldn't admit it aloud to my irksome companion.

Naruto surprised me as well. After much scrutiny on his part of the ramen, he made decent small talk with me. He tried extremely hard to place a smile on my face. Several tries on his end had me chortling in my soup. He ranked the ramen in his top fifty and the slightly disgruntled shopkeep was amazed when he offered tips on ways to make it taste better.

"After all," he assuaged the old mans annoyance "I've traveled around and have eaten more than a thousand ramens." He took his empty ceramic bowl held it high at its base. Placed his free hand on his waist and proclaimed. "For I am the Ramen King! None can hope to know more of ramen than I!" He held the pose. I snorted, and the Old man's daughter looked at Naurto with hearts in her eyes.

We left shortly after. Naurto shooed me out of the stand so he could pay for it. I thought I saw a slight flash of light emanating from Ichiraku. Naurto appeared briefly afterward and fell back into step with me. We proceeded towards the academy, while Naurto pestered me with questions. I mentioned Ino once or twice, and a few others of my classmates.

When we arrived at the Academy he paused. I almost asked why he didn't follow me inside. He gazed at me with those soft azure blue eyes, and I blushed for what must have been the millionth time that day. He swept me up in a quick embraces. I could feel the lean muscles on his arms: tightly corded, warm and strong. He leaned back a bit so he could properly whisper in his ear. "Thanks for the date Sakura-_chan_" It sent and odd shaky feeling up my spine. He let go of me. I think he may have said something more but I didn't hear it. Beet red, I turned and fled into the academy.

* * *

By the fox, she was absolutely adorable. The way she would blush and get flustered, not to mention how she reacted when I got just a bit to close to her. I wanted to market my own set of plush dolls. And they would sell too. I watched her flee into the safety of the large building complex. She remained me a lot of Miniko.

Shaking my head to keep the memories from boiling to the surfaces, I started to stroll towards the central administrations building. With feigned surprise, I jumped when the Anbu Black ops member that had been tailing the roseate, towered over my shortened frame.

"The hokage wishes to see you." His voice was emotionless behind his ceramic mask. I can only assume that he was wearing standard Anbu uniform as I fell into step behind him. At lest now I had a reason to walk in on old man third.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Still looking for a beta reader to speed up the proofreading processes. Also making small changes and corrections to previous chapters.

Disclaimer: Still don't own Naurto. (True story)

Anbu are relatively frightening humans. They may not compare favorably to the monstrosities that existed beyond the seals. They couldn't even compare even close to myself. Anbu had to do so much more to compare to me. Not a lot existed where humans could touch, see, survive, that was as frightening as a ranked god hand.

Even so marching along behind one of Konoha elite, I could see why they had such a fearsome reputation.

They were beings who painted our fears in one way or another. They were stronger, faster and better than almost any other humans. Anbu could react faster, smarter and better than all but a fraction of the entire population. Most of their senses had evolved well beyond what any "mere mortal" could do. The leaf village took the ninjas that pushed past the borders of human. These men were not omnivores that retained the instinct to cower, to know fear, to herd in the face of danger. These men were predators.

His heavy cloak dragged behind him; the hood drawn over his head. Despite that, he still moved gracefully. He didn't move like a dangerous predator rather, he moved like a small stream. Water flowed slowly over rocks and dirt, gently circumventing any obstacle that was placed in front of it. The water had to move somehow, and it chose the means of lest resistance. The Anbu's movements did likewise.

The leaf village was full of Anbu, as well as many ninja who would recognize any one who walked with the presences or experience gained from fine tuning ones body into a lethal weapon. Which was why my heels dragged every few steps. The path I walked leaned a small amount off course that was corrected for occasionally. I rebalanced my self, swung my limbs wide and I looked exactly like some one who couldn't have thrown a kunai ever.

Sometimes, predators can be fooled into not recognizing what is more lethal than their entire village of highly trained killers. And while I was deceiving them I might as well gather some information. Rather than try and pry answers out of the masked shinobi in front of me, I used what made god hands and the other beings in upper echelons of reality so frightening.

Like most other gods, demons and other Outer Rim inhabitants, we have more than just five senses. God's had four useful sensitivities to celestial shift, most demons could determine just how close another being was to becoming corrupted, and god hands had seventeen different senses to paint the reality around them. The must useful of them being the _isha ba taems; _which was best described as anything serving to connect one part or thing with another. Links were what most fresh god hands were taught, before they learned how to speck Rim.

Every object that existed, regardless of what that object may be, had to be made at one point. No mater how much you argue that we are just in a dream, or something isn't real, it had to be made. How it was made is pretty irrelevant as well. Whether it was the Almighty lord or just a freak accident by a drunken lemur it has to have a beginning. Which means every object, from the blade of grass to the Third hokage is linked together in some form.

God hands can see those links through any other of their senses. They can trace them across the entirety of reality. From where I stood right now I could tell you who was having an affair on their husbands in the hidden village of the sand. A blond named Ruika with a dark haired chunin named Shiro, in case you were wondering. The more remote the link, the more difficult it is to trace and follow. The more strength a bond had the less effort was required. It was possible to stop those links. One could also destroy them, even conceal them from the prying thoughts of gods and god hands alike.

So I started with cloaked ninja. There were dozens of _ba taems_ spiraling out of him from every scrap of his being. Links to friends, family, duties, annoyance, even the primal ones, being human and the created link of existing. They painted my eyes with a swath of colors, they all held unique sounds and tastes. They sounded laughter and shared sorrow. The chink of glasses in a toast of remembrance to the ones that will never drink with them again.

These things flowed over me threw me and I could hear them and feel them. See them metaphorically laid out before my eyes. I traced the ones that were important. Following the one's to my charge. I sorted threw the mess of knowledge and went down from one end of the chain to there other. I was glad that no one around me was close enough to get a good look at my eyes, as I'm sure that I'm staring blankly following the ninja.

It was with this method I discovered that The Third had placed an Anbu cell to keep track of Sakura. That one of the original team was out things for the moment, and had called in his former captain to take his place. Said captain hated me. He couldn't contain the anger as well as he normally could. After all from what he saw I murdered his mentor. I may have killed his mentor, but the man was already dead when he decided to cut a deal with the shinigami. From my end I merely saved him from eras of suffering at the death god's hand.

I didn't notice when we had managed to traverse the streets of Konoha. The lunch crowd had begun to appear, and streets began to fill. We had walked pass shops and eateries, past homes and parks. And now I stood in front the door that served as the gate to the third hokage. Time to see if The Professor was as smart as his moniker suggested.

* * *

"Well it appears that you now have a chance to answer my question. Do I need to remind you what that was?" Before me stood a child; A child who had directly assaulted a kage. A child who had more stealth and skill at hiding his presence than my own Anbu. A child that was faster than the wind, probably more dangerous than any ninja under my command. Oddly enough he didn't feel dangerous at all.

The blond carried himself poorly. His center of balance was off, making any sort of combat moves harder to perform. What was most odd was his lack of charka. Not to detract from the lack of harm he seemed capable of producing. The missing sense of danger that I could fell even from Kakashi-chan was not there. Even genin could hold tangible presences of danger. Yet this boy before me held none.

"Well?" The boy had remained silent, plainly refusing to speak. Even the masked nin had glanced up from his orange book. "Perhaps An easier one, your name for instance?" More silence met my questions. My old worn voice retained its soft bite. "Maybe you seem to think that if you say nothing I'll let you go on your way?" His cobalt eyes met my dark ones. His gaze was hard, a plain refusal to answer my questions. "Well it seems we will need a cell for the child here, at lest until our integrators are freed up." The boys gaze failed to diminish; he looked almost board with what was going on around him.

"Hatake! Please escort him to a holding cell. Also alert our best interrogator's as well, I want his life story on this desk by tomorrow." Again nothing more than that hard gaze. Kakashi let out a small sigh of remorse as he stowed his book once more. For an instant no one moved, the blond surprised me by removing his stony glare from me.

"_Icha Icha Paradise_? Isn't that something you shouldn't read in front of children, much less others?" His voice was much higher than I recalled. He sounded like a child, a bright hyperactive child whose voice had yet to break. Kakashi starred for a moment, weather he was actually looking child I was uncertain.

"Well, it just got to a really good part and I wanted to see what happened next." His voice on the other hand was slow and lackadaisical.

"You mean you just got to the part where the main character's love interest winds up sleeping with his sister? Besides I have it on good word you've finished that installment all ready." Mentally my jaw dropped before the images of those chapters rose through my mind. It had been extremely graphical yet well written work. Banishing the thoughts, with a reminder to reread that volume when I got home, I revaluated the child in front of me.

"You seem to be quite adept at surprising others, as well as skilled in misdirection. I'm curious where a child would have learned such." He slowly turned to face me the blond curls swung slightly as he did so.

"Trade ya question for question?" The cold looks and silence vanished. His blue eyes looked mischievous; he bounced on the balls of his feet. His short frame buzzed with energy and it was enough to make my old bones creek and complain.

"Why the sudden change of heart?" I asked the sudden change had placed me off guard. He responded with boundless energy.

"Can't do what I'm here for if I get stuck in a cell."

"And what are you here for?" My question again rolled of my tongue before I could place some thought into it.

"Isha na! Isha na! Its my question Old man!" He burst out rather loudly. I had finally gathered my thoughts and responded faster than the boy could.

"I agreed to no such deal, child." I chided.

"Well than fine I'm not answering any more of your questions" The child collapsed to the ground. Arms crossed, eyes squeezed shut, and a large pout on his face. He sat cross legged on the floor and looked resolutely away from me and the jonin.

s

It was bizarre to see some one who carried so much strength looking so childish. He squirmed a bit, obviously trying to get comfortable on the wood floor of my office. I heaved a great sigh.

"Very well, but first a name, I refuse to continue to call you child." He shifted to look at me with narrow eyes; it gave the impression that he was cunning.

"Naurto, Uzimaki Naurto." Soft and worn spoken a million times, this child was old. He remained seeted upon the floor, one leg crossed upon the other. The detailed fox tail spiraled around his legs, his expression softened. He stared at me with a soft smile.

"Well Uzimaki, Ill have your question if you please." I clasped my hands in front of me.

"Why is Sakura-chan being followed by Anbu?" I had assigned Tenzo's team to the child and her family. I kept from showing the surprise and made a note to check on my Anbu to determine how the child knew.

"An unknown foe had interacted with the Harunos. Standard procedure." I paused with slight trepidation "Why did you end Minato's life?" The question had been spoken with just a hint of malice; even all my years in politics and those endless nightmares in the field could not silence my anger.

"Needed lifeblood. He was a good man to offer his own son as a sacrifice." He spoke quietly, slightly downcast. My temper broke, what did this man know about my successor.

"A good man he was. Believed in the will of fire, the man lived it. Out of all the ninja and civilians, you chose to kill the man who held this village upon his shoulders. I would end your life right here if didn't mean another stack of paperwork to complete. Make no mistake Uzumaki you life hangs by a thread here." Fury welled up within me. A deep festering hatred that had twelve years to consumes me. It cried for blood. It cried for me to use the thousands of jutsu that I knew to send Naurto to the next life.

"What makes you believe that you even can?" He looked into my eyes with raw defiance. "My apologize, old man, It's your question not mine." For an instant as I stared into those cold blue orbs I could see something there. For the first time as I locked gazes with a boy half my size I could see what was behind those eyes.

It had been a long time since I felt the fear of losing my own life. The countless life and death conflicts. Innumerable foes and survivals by a hairs breath had reduced the effect of my eventual demise. All the bloodshed had dulled my desire to live, and the fear that the reaper brought when he knocked against my door. All the years of training and experience had all but removed it.

The boy in front of me reminded me that there would always be those who were faster, stronger, better than me. It touched a fear within in me I thought lost. When I glanced at this boy, I could see the strength this child maintained. It was a brilliant red miasma that filled the room with star colored oranges and sunny yellows. It clung to him; draping him in a cloak of raw power that put the Nine tails to shame. If I ever tried to fight him I would be obliterated before I could think. What a freighting thought.

Heavy manacles were visible on the child's slender wrist. Rustic charcoal gray chains faded from view attached to strength far greater and more terrible than I could even contemplate. This power didn't feel dark or good or made weep with its greatness. The energy lay there thrumming with a strength I couldn't even begin to understand.

His life didn't hang by a thread, mine did. As did any thing that stood between him and his objectives. So I chose to ask the most important question of all.

"Why?" Naurto sat unmoving looking back into me. He must be aware of his own strength. I assumed he was deciding how we were going to get along.

"Because I promised. Nothing more nothing less." He rose to feet dusting him self of as he did so. He had appeared to have decided how he was going to deal with me. "Well Hokage-sama Ill level with you. Aid me now and ill serve you in a capacity that none of your ninja are capable of. You do much more for me working with me rather than against me. Your word is still the strongest force to sway the village and any who would attempt to hinder me. By aiding me I will show you a Will of fire that not even the fourth could live up to." Kakashi tensed his book remained in his hip pouch, unaware of what I had witnessed. His hand was resting on a kunai in his pocket.

It was an interesting offer. Had any other man asked me such I would have ordered Hatake to murder them. No ninja had a right to make such a demand of me. But this boy…

"Tell me what you are?" I counter offered. I was thinking fast trying to get some head way into his passionate speech. His calm demeanor broke like a new dawn.

"My question old man!" He screeched like a crow. He leapt up from the ground. Spinning a small novel on the tips of his fingers he gently placed the dark blue book in front of me. Glancing down to the gold lettering on the front I read, _Meta Na isha Sinfaxis, Talus Azaroth isha Daragozin._ Beneath the two lines of text read in characters that I could actually read, _God Hand Sins, Talus Azaroth Explains_.

"Sooooo, work with me?" I returned my eyes to Naurto once more. He still bounced on the balls of his feet. He still grinned softly, and he refused to let my weary bones rest. Minato had never held what you are against another nor did I believe he would not turn this glowing child away. There were other things to consider but for now I decided to trust him, knowing that I couldn't stop him even if I had tried.

"Very well Mr. Uzumaki, if only because the will of fire wouldn't be held true to me if I refused." I blinked rapidly to clear my eyes; the boys smile had blinded me. "Well than Naurto, will this here explain what you are?" I hefted the book up.

"Nope Old man, just who."

* * *

Kakashi was escorting me to the academy. He also was not reading his book which was a bad sign. What I managed to get off of him signaled that he wasn't much for bloody vengeance. His hatred for me boiled away, I was simply the face attached to a wound that never healed right. He had, if I read correctly, been dealing with such loss all his life. He would put it aside and work with me as me and the old man had outlined. Besides the man read Adult Only books in public, how could I go wrong with that?

"You know you can read your book if you want. Its not like its any thing I haven't seen or done before." That got the masked nins attention. "I thought it was a really good part?" I sniggered as he fixated me with that blank look of his. This man was going to make my long stay so much more enjoyable.

"What changed his mind?" I gave him credit, he almost never changed tones. He showed so little infection I might as well have called him Dote, The most boring god in existence. I had agreed to explain what I could to Old Man Third, as long as such knowledge wouldn't harm others. I had told him that id act like I followed orders from any one who ranked higher than me in the ninja hierarchy.

"Well I let a bit of my strength show when he looked at me. It worked to cut through all the lame misdirection and manipulation we were going to do to each other. You know Azaroth writes a set of books that are just as good if not better than what you're reading right now."

This man had a future as the god hand of Dote. I could feel the excitement that scathed around the man. The ninja didn't even blink; no raised eyebrows, no change of facial expression. If I couldn't read the links between him and his books I wouldn't have even noticed that he was interested at all.

"Oohhhhh?" Again with the lack of emotion damn this mans good.

"Well I don't have them on me but I can get them for you if you like." I stated this offhandedly. It was an out right lie. I had books one through three in the wooden crate that was holding my spare chains. I planed to bribe him with them later when I needed a favor from him.

We walked in silence for a few blocks before the masked ninja asked me with just the slightness bit of interest.

"There wouldn't happen to be a school version of these books would there?" I grinned.

* * *

Iruka-sensei was extremely mad that I had show up halfway through his morning lecture. Fortunately I was almost never late so he let me off easy. Though he was going to make all of us use the transformation jutsu after the lunch period was over.

I let sensei's lectures wash over me as I contemplated what had happened a few minutes ago. Naurto had instead it had been a date and in a way he was right, we had a meal together, he paid for it, and he walked me to my destination. But it couldn't be a date. Because I was only suppose to date Sasuke-kun.

Tucking one of my long pink locks behind my ear I found it far easier to ignore and think strait when I wasn't listening to the hyperactive child. He moved extremely quickly even though he was clumsy. He almost had tripped over his own feet when he walked me to the gate of the academy. I wonder if he had some ninja training. Maybe something odd or out of the way, more based on theory than actual practice.

It would make a lot more sense that way but it failed to explain where he came from. He wasn't a ninja yet because he had no forehead protector. I didn't know every one at the academy, but some one like him who would torment innocent girls like myself would have been made mention by some one. Well ok he didn't torment and he was cute and he might have been nice. Still it's not right to drag a lady to a first date of ramen, king or not.

I mussed at length of this and a variety of possibilities on whom and where Uzumaki came from. Iruka-sensei's voice cut into my brooding.

"You know Sakura that lunch started five minuets ago." I yelp, startled. The chunin was stand directly in front of me and I didn't even notice, some ninja I am.

With a heavy sigh my instructor continued; "Really now what's up with you today Sakura, first late and now you ignored me the entire day. This isn't like you at all."

I didn't want to tell him why I was late, nor was I to enthusiastic about explain my turmoil so I decided to be vague. "Well sensei have you ever been so sure about something and than all of a sudden things change?"

He searched my eyes and face for a few long moments. "A few times." Pain flashed across his face for a moment before he went on. "When I was a kid I had started the acadmy to be ninjas like my parents were. I had been there a week and I was really happy. My parents were so proud of me for stepping up to do my part for our village. I had no doubt that I was going to become a fine ninja. And than…" He trailed of looking past me. I hadn't expected him to open up to me at all. But our instructor rarely talked about himself so I listened with rapt attention.

"The Kyubi attacked, lost my home, lost my parents didn't have a clue in the world what I was going to do. Acted out a lot for attention, eventually The Third Hokage sorted me out. I worked had to become an instructor and here I am."

"That's awful sensei, I'm so sorry you went through that." I was starting to tear up and my voice brook when I spoke.

He waved me off with his hands. "Its ok Sakura, it was a while ago and I'm over it now, don't worry about it." He offered me a reassuring smile. I hung my head in shame.

"I feel really bad about this you went through that and I'm just worried about boys…" I trailed of dejectedly. Blinking back the tears so they wouldn't spill down my face I found my self felling very small.

"Oh boys already?" I snapped up to meet my teacher's eyes. Was he really that oblivious to not noticed how almost the entire female half of the class fawned over Sasuke? "Well can't say I ever had much luck with girls my self so I'm not the best to talk to." He scratched the back of his neck for a moment. "Well if nothing else than you should head out for lunch. I believe Ami who teaches up on the third floor is open if you need a better opinion or some one else to talk to."

I nodded and rose from my seat. With a short bow and a quick word of thanks I rush out the door. Desperately trying to put distance between my self and my child ness, I didn't feel hungry at all. The ramen had been filling though I would have to work extra hard to not get fat because of it.

I walked out to the training filed where most of the students gathered to be social during lunch. Amidst bickering fan girls who Sasuke-kun obvious gave the slip to, I tried to find a quite spot and meandered towards the front gate. The gate had a large dirt path that led to the academy proper and a few braches which led to other places within the grounds. Even here there were large numbers of students of varying ages running about, playing, and boasting to each other. Through the loud din I caught sight of two people walking from the street towards the gate. One wore standard ninja attire for chunin up and was holding a book in his hand the other…

The other had spiky blond hair. Even though I wasn't closes enough to see the details, whiskers, deep blue eyes, and a blinding smile. My mind drew blank as my inner self summed the occurrence up nicely

"Oh hell, cha"

A/N: Another day another dollar, wait I don't get paid for this still.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Slowly but it comes, that it does.

Disclamier: Don't own Naurto ( true story)

For the second time today, I fell into step beside Sakura. I brought my hand up to rub my jaw once more. I decide for a girl who had barely made average in her Tai jutsu training, she hit extremely hard. It wasn't my fault that in my first attempt to mold charka, that I transformed into a smoking, attractive, naked, blond. I suppose that in the laughter that was gathered against me, I might have showed off my information gather capabilities. I didn't say much; well I did say the rosette was on a date and I might of said something about Kiba.

Pink haired decided to give me a date with the floor.

"We are not dating. So quit following me."

"But Sakura-chan…"

"No buts!" My charge looked extremely frightening in that moment. A fist clutched so hard the knuckles turn white, and a jade eye twitched dangerously. I doubt she could see the flames licking her short slender frame, the living extension of her rage. Having a sense for emotion I could "see them".

"Ok were not dating. Its just…" I trailed off and started tugging my hair. It was an extremely bad habit that I picked up over the eons. Sakura's flames fell as I gave the slight ground.

"Just what!" She growled like a mother wolf protecting her cubs. Scratching the back of my neck I gazed at the ground.

"Well Sakura, Its just that our clans set up an arranged marriage between them and since were both only children, were going to get married."

The flames fizzled in shock, they sputtered, than flared, than proceeded to become a massive bon fire that probably would have been visible for miles. Her fist on the other hand struck like falling trees as she brought that fiery wrath down upon me.

I felt myself slam into the brick wall that made up the edge of the academy boundary. My eyes could only see the salmon colored clay. I heard her storm off like a hurricane in the direction of her house. My body shook on its own accord as I picked my self out of the wall. The Anbu that were still shadowing the girl and I would bet big to say that at lest one of them shook their head at me before continuing to follow my ward.

At lest that would make sure she stayed in a far easier location to be defended if someone made an attempt on her. She would most likely have a long talk to her parents about the supposed marriage. It would give me the time to set up and fix the ransack apartment complex that the third had let me have.

Absently I rubbed the spots she had hit, nothing human should strike that hard.

* * *

My room was girly. It had several shades of pink and a variety of knick knacks that were excessively cute. My comforter was a light magenta, my pillows and throw were a dull shade of an electric pink. My drapes matched the walls which were a pale pink that matched my hair. I had a dresser to hold my clothes, and a night stand that a few photos of me in which I looked extremely cute in.

I would have to change that, but with all the Sasuke stalking, I mean Intel gathering, I mean…

Ok so maybe I stalked him, how could I be blamed, I mean look at him! He has the cool dark eyes with the mysterious pale skin and jet black raven hair that had just the right amount of curl yet retained a silky sheen. That and he was a trained ninja with lots of corded muscles that made a lot of women drool. Somewhere underneath that cold shell had to be a soft caring man to take care of everything.

A part of me thinks that might not be a good thing but who am I to deny being rescued by someone that gorgeous.

Sighing I threw myself onto my bed. Nothing new on the Sasuke front and woes of an annoying blond resurfaced. What kind of dark twisted evil tells someone that they were going to get married the day they meet, and than not even have the decency to buy flowers? Even worse he was lying about it! Sure he was cute and had nice eyes but that didn't give him the right to joke about marriage.

I propped my self up and looked at one of the pictures on my night stand. It was of a younger me together with my former friend and now rival. Ino and I were no longer on best of terms but I hadn't forgotten what she had done for me. I acted like it but I knew one day we would reconcile it. I just hope nothing bad happened to her before we could.

* * *

The apartment complex I had been given was a leisurely nine and a quarter minute walk to my wards place. It was the blink of an eye for some one of my speed but it still felt far for the speed others were capable of. The complex it self was seven stories and was typical of the area, considering it was just on the edge of a commercial district. Meaning lots of pipes and wires. It took a bit of time and the acquisition of timber, paint, and other varies construction materials but it was definitely looking better. Fresh paint gleamed and I admired my work. Most of the building was in decent shape however several walls needed replacing and several floors needed to be ripped out and installed anew. The entire interior was also repainted. I even fixed the pipes.

It took me the better part of the evening and the sun had just set. Even being incredibly fast didn't help make the process any easier. I had to bribe a ninja who used ink and paint techniques to apply the paint. Not a lot of people walked by during the time and I finished it fast enough that any questions about the amount of work completed, would be rationalized away from what really happened for something more reasonable.

Undercover work didn't suit me. I could do it, my god and five eras of experience made sure that I would, but I didn't like it. Since I didn't want to tell a twelve year old girl that I had more than enough strength to make her the ruler of the planet, I would have to maintain some degree of cover. Hopefully I could guide her towards being someone who wouldn't be tempted to ask for the world on a silver platter. Which meant I would have to play the part of a ninja and push every thing off that I did as some sort of ninja trick. Fortunately for me a lot of what I could do, Ninjas were capable of doing to some degree. The scale would be pathetic for any god hand but I could manage to hold back enough to get things done.

So I took the time use the isha rashin to cover the place with a distraction magic. The nice one that made the building appears uninteresting and unimportant. Fortunately ninjas weren't adept at detecting any thing that wasn't intent or charka.

Isha rashin, or god magic as it was, is a nice ability that every god hand had to some degree. To utilize it, one required some energy and a force of will. Since I had a being that had been alive since before mortal races even existed shoving that energy down my throat there was a lot I could do with it. The more complex the isha rashin the harder it was to come up with on the spot. Eventually things like; circles, runes, rituals, focus items, location and preparation would be required to do things more complex than making fire and lighting appear from nothing. It may not have been magic in the real sense that its an unpredictable nexus of power that's at ends with the rest of reality, but it sure looked a lot like it.

I could throw down better magic's that manipulated the air than any other god hand out there. Hence my title the Wind Master. Not as good as the Ramen King but an impressive title.

Deceptive magic's and wards weren't bowl of ramen but I could manage well enough. Wrapping my self in a blanket of raw moving energy I slipped out wards into the night. Moments passed and the world moved like a blur of color around me. It ended all too soon as I slipped down into the crook of two branches on a lefty tree. The other Anbu and staked out spots in various places and I ignored them after I had identified them. They were unable to even begin to determine that someone might be listening in, and kilometers away from trying to locate me. What can I say? I'm just that awesome

I spent the remaining time tuning my senses to the world around me as the pink haired girl went about her apprehensive worrying. Hours crawled by and my charge eventually fell into slumber. It was a rather pleasant evening despite the obtrusive tree leaves and odd shaped branches rubbing and prodding me in my perch. The time moved listlessly, constant to the beating of reality's heart. The Anbu changed shifts. As they finished settling into their watch I put a plan into action.

Tomorrow in Konoha was definitely going to be interesting.

* * *

I didn't have the time to devote the proper amount of effort to my pink locks because of the fitful sleep the night before. With a cheerful goodbye to my parents I quietly shut the door behind me. The sun was shining brilliantly and this day was bound to be good.

It had taken many hours of thought but I decide that Naurto Uzumaki was an idiot that had fantastic taste. He obviously had feelings for me otherwise he wouldn't try to flirt with me, hence good taste. When I saw him at the academy id have to let him know, it's not like he knew where I lived but it would be good to set him strait.

As I stepped past my front gate a boy my age was approaching me. He was walking with a smile on his face and whiskers on his checks. Meandering past me he offered a jaunty wave. I sputtered indigently which just caused him to grin harder as he continued onward towards the main road. He paced ten steps past me before I snapped.

Moving full pelt I quickly closed the distance and drove my foot into the back of his skull. His arms wind milled comically in wide arcs before his face was planted into the dirt. He warbled something out into the street while I let my momentum carry me to a graceful landing in front of him.

I watched him push himself up out of the dirt his hair forming a curtain that tumbled in front of him as he heaved himself standing. Through the wreath of hair, his eyes narrowed and his body pulled taunt and I took an involuntary step back. Something about him looked far more dangerous than he had an instant before. It passed as he huffed a breath and looked at me with eyes clenched shut.

"Daam ku bi no kisten" He mumbled out. I wasn't quite clear what he said something about a fox but other than that I wasn't sure.

He stood and pouted arms crossed and a scrunched up face that looked adorable. He turned and started to walk towards Main Street. I whirled on him before he had a chance to pass me.

"You! What's the big idea trying to tell me were getting married! Do you have any idea what that did to me." I glared as hard as I could at him, doing my best to focus on the anger I felt from being tricked and not any of the fear or resentment that came with it. Naurto may have meant it to be a joke but it hit far harder than what he had imagined.

"You had no right Naurto to joke about that, no right at all to do that to poor innocent me." I tried hard to keep myself steady and maintain the hard tone in my voice but I couldn't. My voice cracked and I could feel my tears well up. He didn't understand what it meant for kunoichi in the field. What could happen to them wasn't talked about because most ninja tried to forget that it even happened. It was a small thing really, a short discussion at the academy to only the females in the class, every thing else was left to ones parents on how to deal with it. His proclamation frightened me because if it was true, he would stand a decent chance to get away with it if he decided to take such liberties with me.

"Just, Just don't lie to me again." The tears I tried to hold back slowly tricked downward after my shaky demand. He blinked rapidly a few times than cocked his head to the side looking bemused.

"You mean that's what this is about?" He spoke softly caring evident on his expressive face. He gently began to brush my tears away, I let him.

"Alls you got to do is ask. I'd hate to make my Sakura-chan-"

"I'm not yours, Idiot!" Naurto's whiskers twitched slightly.

"Ok ok ok your not!" His hands continued to stay my tears. Naurto didn't seem perturbed by my sudden shifts. I didn't want to look into his eyes and he didn't seem to mind me starring at his whiskers. "But why are you so upset?"

That drew me back to his eyes, they were definitely nice and deep, the perfect shade of blue that sonnet and poems were written of.

"You're hopeless."

I walked on leavening a befuddled Naurto to ponder the ways of women

* * *

Five Eras is a long time. They vary length to length but typically take forty to fifty evolutions. An evolution being the length of time it takes life to first be created, to grow and evolve to sentient status, and than either blow it's self to bits or evolve to the point where it loses sentient status. On the current planet which had a twenty four hour, minuet day. Its year was three hundred and sixty-five days even (surprisingly even). According to years spent on this rock…one trillion, two hundred and thirty four billion, five hundred and sixty seven million, eight hundred and ninety thousand. It should be noted that that includes all life that continues to evolve, not just the first emergent sentient species.

Don't ask me why the number worked out that way, I haven't the faintest clue.

And than don't ask me to explain women either. I don't have a clue there either.

In the mean time I followed behind the contrary rosette. She had stopped on Main Street roughly 10 meters from the road she had left. And like many others she was staring in shock at monument to honor their leaders past. Someone had decided to apply paint, a lot of it, against the rock face. They had expertly drawn childes things, like mustaches and spiky eyebrows. Someone who would have known to affix tags to each face of the hokage. Some one who may have also taken the time to set up and orchestrate an assault on the hidden leaf village by using the Nine Tailed Fox to do so. I might have found time to examine the world, and its history that I had found myself in. Mostly the players of the game.

The first hokages face bore the title "enslaver" and "bigot". The second was awarded "Warmonger" and "betrayer". I decide to place old man thirds youthful visage with "Impotent" as well as "daft". The fourth was harder to place. In his short time in office he hadn't managed to do a terrible amount wrong. He didn't enslave demons simply because they were different or offered gains to his village. Nor did he deliberately lead his people into a war he engineered. After selling out some of his best ninjas to do so of course.

He also didn't turn a blind eye to the corruption and moral less clan policies that ran rampart in a ninja village. I was forced to go with what made the fourth such a great man in the eyes of his charges.

"Deserter" and "Short sided" wouldn't make any sense considering that Minato Namikaze had died to save his village. But to someone who looked past his rash choice, they could see them applied quite readily.

In his haste to protect his village, he chose a child to bear a burden greater than the one he would face. After all the chance that the mid ranking fox demon would break free was a real possibility. He even failed to consider what would have become if he failed, or worse was killed before it could happen.

None of these truths stop than from being both good leaders and good men. They just weren't the heroes that the blind leaf made them out to be.

Sakura was staring open mouthed in horror at the mountain face. It appeared to me that she was taking completely by surprise. If there was one thing Jasnee isha Sasarius, better know as Naurto Uzumaki, was good at, it was surprising people. Five ears just made it child's play to pull off. Besides the rest of the week would be even better if things went well. If she was surprised now I can't wait to see her reaction to what comes next. Besides, I was a bit annoyed at my charge for deciding to apply a no lying clause to the bindings that held me. So I gave her a foxy grin as I past and threw a well place jab.

"You shouldn't stare to long Sakura-chan, you might be late twice in a row."

By the time my words registered I had already vanished into the crowed.

For a trained ninja she sure couldn't find me in a crowd. Granted I was extremely good at vanishing, and I could locate the blind spots in almost any net. In this case I had a large crowd to blend into and once line of sight was broken she would need quite some time to locate me.

Pity she didn't try to. I wanted to show off just how good I was at being an "information ninja". Sakura just shook her head; bubble gum hair flitted a bit before she brushed it back. She took one last look at the mountain before pushing threw the crowed towards her school. I followed.

* * *

A/N: still need someone to beta. Also um...cake?


	5. Chapter 5

A/N Ive givin up hope for having a beta reader. Thats all i got.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naurto (true story)

Five times now Sakura arrived late. It didn't mater since half the class and our teacher begun to arrived late as well. Five times I didn't have to hear here annoying shrill voice ask "Mind if I sit next to you Sasuke-kun." Few things could be better, one of them being my brother's heart in my hands, but ill have to wait on that one.

Most of the class bore some evidence of being pranked. The majority of the class had their hairs dyed, making Sakura bright pink hair look dejected in the technicolor rain bow. A third of the class was drenched with water courteously carefully placed buckets in unsuspecting locations. Many students had images drawn on their faces in permanent inks. And it wasn't limited to just the students. Almost all the citizens and a large portion of the ninja had been victims in one way or another.

While I had nothing to show, whoever was responsible had religiously targeted me with buckets of water. I was furious until I heard he managed to nail the hokage with a paint bucket. If the hokage was as good as he was suppose to be this man had to be beter.

Out of the class Sakura had yet to be struck, Naurto had shown up one day wearing a soft pink dress with 6 cm heels until Iurka managed to dispel the illusion. Why Sakura was to be spared was beyond me.

Sakura like the rest of the females in this class was worthless, just like almost all the males. Shino and Kiba weren't bad, neither were a few of the others. Uzumaki on the other hand…

For an information ninja, he could barley mold chakra and didn't appear to have fought at all. On the other hand he knew things that no ninja should. While amusing to have him point out with substantial evidence that Kiba had gotten caught peeking on his sister in the baths, it did not sit well. He was of little use to me at the moment, but his mind was sharp enough that he might become worthwhile.

He had taken a seat next to Sakura which put him on my left. He seemed entirely board with what Iruka was saying and kept stealing glances at Sakura.

At the moment there seemed nothing dangerous about him, other than his unhealthy interest in the opposite gender. Or more accurately the weak of the opposite gender. I know some females, like Lady Tsunade, are incredibly powerful, but Sakura is just a worthless fan girl. What could a ninja with such incredible skill at information see that I could not?

* * *

Man I hate the nine tails. If he hadn't bothered to try in run when I stuffed him in the necklace, I wouldn't be looking after this pink haired wreaking ball that can barely date, and still doesn't know how to get a guy. When my hundred years are up I'm going to kill him.

At lest my charge was entertaining. So was this village. Since no ninja could find me when I didn't want to be found, I took the liberty of brightening it up with a few (hundred thousand) practical jokes.

"Uchiha, Sasuke." Mizuki, the white haired chunin with strait locks, stood garbed in the standard chunin uniform. He held a clip board in his hand as he called up the last of the students to perform a bunshin no jutsu. This apparently was a standard test of chakra molding technique.

Clone fighting was something that died sometime back in the seventh ear, along with illusions. In order to craft clones that could actually fool a god hand in to believing that your clone was real was a nightmare. Illusions that could fool an isha sinfaxis were even harder to perform. Having eighteen senses to fool put a damper on a convincing deception. To succeed with something like that often took a large quantity of time, material, and no small amount of luck and preparation.

Glancing once more at my ward, I took a moment to consider her. She had taken some time to groom her appearance and it showed. Her hair held a delicate sheen that looked fetching within her soft cotton candy locks, tucked behind her newly acquired fore head protector. Jade eyes, another soft shade of green, set in pale almost entirely unblemished skin. Paired with the young face, she was the literal image of soft and meek. Pity she was going to grow to be strikingly elegant. Her temper was going to get worse and the shifts that were a result of growing and developing would be tempered. She would still go off like a star going super nova, but at lest she wouldn't appear to be bi-polar.

A firebrand, a soft meek mouse, a caring soul who truly wanted to help, determination to stand down even the nine tails, brilliance worth of a strategist, and a spine worthy of being god steel. Most of this was hidden in the youth, clothed in the trappings of social pressure. Sakura was going to take this world by storm assuming she survived it, and she had a ranked god hand that had nothing better to do than to see that she survived.

"Uzumaki, Naurto"

Rising from my seat next to Sakura-chan, I sauntered into the main examination hall. The academy had three such halls, each built on top of each other and each designed to hold a progressively larger crowd. The one on the third floor had an occupancy limit of three hundred and twenty. The bottom one was just across the hall from our class room, and as I entered Iruka and Mizuki sat at a plain white table. The last of the forehead protectors sat in front of them, enough for me and another class to be examined after ours.

I stepped up and stopped ten paces in front of them on the bare hard wood floor. Both chunin peered at me with curiosity. Giving the occasion I was in formal attire. A plain form fitting night black shirt made of a stretchy material that did not originate on this planet. It clung to my skin and molded my lean frame tightly. The pants, though made of same silken material, were corded at the waist but flowed loosely down my legs. Like every pair of pants I owned, an intricately embroidered orange burgundy fox tail wove its way down my legs. I had dug my robe out of the far corner of reality and placed it on my shoulders. Printed on the back with a single fox tail, it hung just to the flat of my feet. For the first time in some two ears, I wore shoes. I had acquired a pair of ninja sandals, black with etched foxes running around the thick soles. I also retrieved my formal belt. A braided rope woven of blood red with silver and black strands. A matte silver fox tail hung just of my left ear, and the fox pendant was still hung tightly from my neck.

Looking like that, pushing a fox motif to the limit, its not hard to see why they were looking at me strangely. Between odd stares and having The Almighty brought down on me for violating the third sin, I chose the former. Besides compared to what some ninja wore I didn't look to out of place. Granted I wasn't about to go running around in a bright orange track suit with Sakura around to pound me into the pavement.

I would wait till she was out of town for that.

"Well Uzumaki-san, the hokage has informed us that you will be promoted to genin even with the holes in your capabilities. So were going to have you take the test for just the bunshin no jutsu, and you jonin instructor will work out the rest of what you need to do."

With a sharp nod, I began to focus my chakra. Chakra was the weight of memories combined with the raw energy of the physical body. Considering the sheer power of my memories, and the fact that I could remember every single detail with crystal clarity, I had a lot of tonnage to mold into cohesive energy. My body it self was magnitudes more resilient and far more capable of producing energy than any mere mortal.

I hadn't sat down and bothered to determine the right mixture of mind to body to get the technique right. I didn't even know how to make a clone period. If twelve year olds could do this some one of my age shouldn't even have to try.

Turns out the flowing energy that god hands use is not the same as chakra. It also appears that the raw volume of chakra was a bit much to.

Copious amounts of a thick smoke materialized into existence. The room was filed with a relatively light smoke. It didn't burn acidly in the back of my throat or singe my nose. It dispersed rather quickly, with the light breeze that flowed from the open windows. I was now surrounded by large mounds of humanoid looking twelve year olds.

Several dozen of "me" had appeared in the massive wash of chakra that I had unleashed. They looked similar to me in many ways, they had blond hair, blue eyes, looked like they were about ten to twelve. Providing that they looked like poorly drawn cartoons; they looked washed out and improperly shaded.

"That is an impressive amount of clones." Mizuki spoke after gawking a moment. Iruka nodded in agreement.

"Well that's… strange, but its still an unsuccessful attempt, even with the hokage's recondition I don't think we can pass you." Iruka looked down for a moment at some of the papers that were set upon his desk.

"Well he did technically produce a clone, and I don't believe any other genin that we have passed can produce that volume of clones. We could pass him on those grounds." Mizuki pointed out.

Iruka sighed before examining me, while he searched for an answer.

"Perhaps we can test him on a few other grounds. Stealth, tactics, as well as hand to hand combat. But we won't have a chance before we would have to add him to the next round of academy students. Though that might be best."

"On the other hand, Iruka-san, we have only one more class, if your up to handling them all your selves, I could arrange a test with Naurto-san." Muziki pointed out. "He showed promise, it would only be fair given the hokage's faith in this boy."

"Well he did surprise me." Iruka admitted with some reluctance.

"Surprise you? You almost passed out on the floor when I hit you with my henge!" I hate it when my good work goes unappreciated. Even when its accidental. Deciding to show this young upstart the meaning of an angry god hand I preformed a few simple sets of hand signs. Focusing on the memories of smoking hot naked women in my minds eye, and concentrating on the push and pull of my muscles, I molded a much smaller amount of chakra across my form.

The results had Iruka flying backwards out of his chair, kicking the table aside as his nose erupted into a fountain of blood. He tumbled, his chair scouting forward as he hit the ground hard.

I batted my eyelashes innocently aiming a seductive smirk at Mizuki who was looking down at his fellow chunin's twitching body.

"Nice henge." He muttered taking note of my changed form. I had gained two decimeters in height and had adopted a seductive pose. The cloths I had worn had all vanished turning into ideally placed clouds of smoke to preserver just a little modesty and emphasize the generous assets I had gained on my form. Long legs that looked soft enough to spread on toast, while retaining lean defined silken muscles that turned into perfectly shaped hips. Flat taunt stomach that curved smoothly into a generous chest that fit the womanly frame I had acquired. The smoke clouds flouted around my hair and bracketed my entire form. My face had gone soft and demure looking, with sparkling blue eyes that told a different story. My neck still bore the silver fox tail that I always wore, though it now fell in the valley between my breast rather be held tight against my collar bone. I thought the hair in a pair of pigtails was a nice touch personally.

"Well Naurto-chan, looks like you can successfully henge, and convincing ones at that. Perhaps you should drop the transformation technique so I can rouse Iurka-san." I nodded and released the chakra that I had been holding onto. One nebulas poof of smoke later and I stood definitely male and fully clothed.

"Meet me at the tea house off Main Street within an hour; ill have prepared a task for you to complete." He bent down and began to shake the still prone teacher. I took that as a cue to leave.

* * *

When I had received my task, it was odd what Mizuki had suggested would be the best way to sneak into the lightly defended library and retrieve an overly large scroll of techniques. Sure it made sense to sneak into it at night but that's when the Anbu would be covering the building while the hokage was still inside. Further more once he left there wouldn't be any one left in the building. Anbu would stand watch outside and only enter if they detected a wisp of chakra within the walls. Once they were certain the building was secure they would vacate it and resume their outdoor watch.

So I entered just a bit before the administrative office closed for the evening. In the confusion a genin looking to hand in his late mission report wasn't at all out of place. The guard changed shortly after the offices shut down, the chunin trading places with the elite jonin. It should be noted that a lost genin do occasionally wander the halls until they come across a chakra sealed door.

For a genin who doesn't know a thing about sealing jutsu it wouldn't budge. For a god hand who had been dealing with locked doors when human life was still evolving on this rock they called a planet, it made a generous exception. The door albeit was shattered when struck by several thousand tons of raw kinetic force, but it did so humbly. What? why bother with the seals when I can just break it with overwhelming force. That would be like creating five clones when fifty should do.

For good measure I decide to leave a small note as I zipped past the old man and out his windows. He was elbow deep in paperwork but he would get the small note that was sitting on one of the many stacks that littered his desk. I'm sure he would get it, eventually. Glancing at the setting sun I decide I had more than enough time for a bowl of ramen before I was required to hand the scroll off to Muziki. Maybe ten or twelve even.

* * *

Walking home after sunset was scary enough, walking home with some crazy guy to publicly humiliate me in front of the few meandering people left in the streets was terrifying. It shouldn't bother me really, I mean I was a ninja now, things like dark alleys and embarrassment shouldn't bother me at all.

Nope the dark alleys still looked frighting and I didn't want to think how long it would take to get paint out of my hair. If only Sasuke would be willing to walk me home, I wouldn't have any thing to worry about. Naurto would come to rescue if any thing bad happened.

Wait Naurto? I mean he did sort of like me and he was kinda cute, but why would I want him to rescue me? Sauske would do better than he could anyways. I shook my head to clear my thoughts, my pink hair staying neatly in place since it was still tide behind the blue cloth.

Maybe it was because he had taken to walking home with me. I had gotten use to him following two steps behind me going on about how awesome ramen was or gossiping with a few of the civilians. I'm just glad Ino hasn't met him yet, the two blonds would never shut up.

Speaking of ramen and of Naurto, he was siting of all places at Ichiraku. Somehow I felt I should of realized it sooner. Holding back the urge to throttle him for making a lady walk home in the dark, I debated asking him. He would totally get the wrong idea! Look at him, siting there with several bowls stack in an untidy heap next to his elbows. He even had a large scroll almost as tall as him balanced on the stool next to him. Damn thing was keeping him from being all alone.

Wait, what?

Siting there was an almost comically large scroll, and as I approached it had a big symbol for Forbidden scrawled acrostic in artistically done brush work. Once I was close enough, I could make out the small lettering in the corner of that read "For the hokage only".

"Sakura-chan, why are you eying the large scroll?" Naurto's voice snapped me back to reality.

"Don't do that!" I scolded at him, trying to slow my hyper accelerated heart. Glancing at him it was hard to be mad at him. He just looked so innocent with the chopsticks held by his teeth. His bowl of ramen sat innocently, the blue border along the rim matched his eyes, the same painted blue.

"Ne sakura-chan, the scroll doesn't seem to like ramen, so you can have his." He gestured to a soup that was siting in front of the scroll.

"You bought ramen for a scroll?" Disbelief was evident in my voice.

"Well yea, everyone should get ramen." He cooed softly at the scroll. I think my mouth might have been hanging open at this point.

"Right. But I couldn't its the scrolls. Why do you have it anyways?" I studied it a bit more, and noted an official looking seal pressed in wax right after the line of text.

"Its for my genin test, since they don't have my skills and the bunshin didn't turn out right, they decide to give me an alternate test. You going to eat that?" He pointed at the untouched bowl of ramen that sat in front of the scroll.

"Not at all." I said still staring at the scroll. It looked real, it might have been real. I ran my eyes over it trying to place where I had seen this particular scroll before. It was large almost a head shorter than I was and probably just as wide as myself. Not that I'm fat or anything but it looked like this one contained a large quantity of information.

"So whats in it?" I glanced over at him as he paused in the process of shoveling noodles down his throat. With a large slurp he swallowed the whole mess.

"It was a scroll in the hokage's library, I was just suppose to pick it up." He placed the now empty bowl on the counter. "Well I do still have to deliverer it to Mizuki-sensei Would you like to come with me?"

A/n Some feedback would be nice


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: The next one will be long in coming, branching events make for harsh work

Disclaimer: Still don't own Naurto (True story)

Even with my charge slowing me down, we still managed to make our rendezvous location early.

It was a small hut structure built as part the deep forest training ground. Most likely for various drill scenarios ranging from ambushing the occupants to protection/extraction drills. It was only a few meters tall with boarded windows and door.

No one had been there for a while, most of the links had faded. What was left was a melange of all the drilling. The veins of success and failure were most prominent. The joy, elation and overwhelming pride washed over me, in the wake of the frustration and anguish left by all those who couldn't make the cut. It felt so childish, full of hope and desire. Most of the ones who practiced here felt that to fail was the worst thing that could happen to them.

In the falling twilight of the forty second ear of reality, though the term loses its value when you realize that were only twenty odd evolutions in to the era. Something big was brewing, taking form and shape. I didn't have any head way into things other than a god scion was part of it. Five ears taught me not to look so far ahead that I miss the key plays happening right before my eyes. It also taught me just how great I had things.

I mean sure I was in a constant state of attempting to not get myself killed. Sure I had to do whatever I was told by something that would just as readily send me to die if he though he got the better side of the deal. Not to mention constantly having to put up with lesser beings who should realize my sheer greatness. The whole living with mortal beings, who for the most part don't live more than a hundred years, tends to get extremely tiring.

That said give me a fraction of a reality cycle and I can name an innumerable amount of others that have suffered far worse than I ever would. I had the option to fight, at lest I can throw down against all but the strongest nightmares reality has to offer. That and The Almighty, but he doesn't count. Not to mention I'm beyond just about above all form of law any mortal race can produce.

We sat against the building as we waited for our sensei to show up. It was a small clearing that ninja had hacked away from the dense forest around us. Which in reality wasn't as much as you could find else where. This portion of the forest was covered in old teak treas mixed with some of the larger species of tree, at lest I think it was teak, might have been oak or teak.

So I can't name a tree when I look at it. They were big, they were tall, and they didn't let a lot of thick wild growth form underbrush that was found in most forest.

Sakura had caved and broke out the large ramen hating scroll, she had been staring at the writing on it. Which was bad I suppose, considering that it was real.

"Hey Naurto, this thing was just a prop right?" She had laid the scroll out in the grass, siting leg over leg, eyes furrowed in concentration.

"Nope, its a scroll that holds some of the most dangerous techniques the leaf has ever cerated." I would have liked to say that is wasn't any thing but a prop. A fake scroll set up for a test in an unusual place. Unfortunately she told me not to lie to her, didn't mean I couldn't deceive her I just couldn't throw false truths into her face.

"Are you lying to me Naurto? I mean look at this! Shadow clone jutsu! Its one thing to form a solid clone from earth or water, but shadows? Theres just no way you could form something solid out of nothing tangible." She huffed before she returned to the scroll.

I looked over and read directly from the scroll:

"The shadow clone technique was developed to be utilized for dangerous reconnaissance task. The first incantations of the Anbu developed this to reduce casualties in the Hunter-nin Recon Devision . The First hokage declared this jutsu forbidden due to deaths caused in the initial learning phase of the technique. I don't know, how does it work?"

"Well it looks like you use your chakra as a blunt instrumental, mold it in high quantities, and split it apart." She pointed to a later passage and recited.

"Since splinting chakra rarely appears in any non summoning jutsu, many trainees kill themselves by forcing all their chakra into the attempted clones. To prevent, separate the chakra before hand, than after the initial release balance the chakra across all the cerated clones. Otherwise it looks like its just a fancy bunshin jutsu. It later mentions a draining effect is unique as the chakra continually shifts until unconsciousness or death result." She looked up at me for some sort of conformation, a spot or so of hope mixed in with the icy currents of dread.

"Whats the seals?" I asked as I stood and took a few steeps back from where the rosette sat.

"You actually just form a cross seal that appeared in many of the early genjutsu. It says here you want to..." She trailed off taking her eyes and focusing on mine. They really did look nice, open. It looked like I could read her like a book. "Wait your not going to try this, right?"

I didn't have a chance to answer her question. The so called instructor just pulled six kunai and was currently drawing a line on to Sakura. I had been keeping a relatively lax eye on him since he appeared to just be sulking in the background. There wasn't a way in hell that I was going to let this jerk hurt MY Sakura-chan.

Thats dangerous thinking I don't have the time for. Brilliant scarlet chains danced across my conciseness, screaming at me that he had launched an attack at Sakura. While I wanted to pluck them out of the air and hurl them back in the time it took to let his arms finishes the follow through, I did the stupid, wait I meant heroic, thing and dove on front of the siting girl. She scrambled up thinking that I was attacking her.

My hands slammed into the wooden walls trapping her between me and the projectiles hurtling down on her. She looked fearfully at me for a moment before she flinched at the sound six pieces of cold steal slammed into my back. A muted thumping sound of a large tome hitting carpet vibrated through me. I hadn't tensed my muscles at all, so the knife edges bit deeply into my back. I could fell two partly burrowed into my ribs with the others dug deep into the gap between them. I gave him credit for thinking ahead far enough to throw like the six of a dice. The bottom two dots were all that was actually aimed at her; the other kunai had been thrown above and slightly to the left to tag her if she tried to dodge.

Not that it mattered. I begun to plan my next move while he was still watching the results of his attack.

"Sakura when I start to turn rip the bottom two kunai out. He won't be able to see you, so throw them around me. I'm going to try and make them dodge left. Nail him if you can." Despite the wounds in my back, I made sure my voice was the same strong alto that I had adopted. No quaver or any indication that I was losing blood by the pint out my back. Its not like I needed it entirely. I took the moment to admire her as I reevaluated my plan. She was afraid, it was a dark choking fog that rolled off her in waves. My plan hinged on the appearance of tricky. I could literally watch her ninja training kick in and override the confusion and fear. Determination etched in every line of the resolute face that stared back at me.

The pain that struck me had been set aside. The agony of sharp implements impaling me was nearly painless, initially. After that, however, reminded me why pain hurt so much. Sharp spikes shot up me from six different points, each twitch brought new seething fire across my back. Fortunately I had a much greater control of my body than any other human before me, shunting down the damaged portion of my nervous system was second nature.

Sakura and the wall behind her faded. I switched off my first five sense, they would only hinder me at this point. I lost the feeling of blood dripping down my back, the numb chill where the steel had embedded itself in me. I could no longer fell the heat that radiated from my charge. The sounds of a forest alive, insects creaking, chirping and otherwise announcing themselves, between the croak of the amphibians and the hooting owls. The slight wind that had brought about a constant shift fell into the black ocean I now found myself in. Above where the stars should of shined, The Great Seals. An endless aurora of blues, reds and yellows intertwined in billions of circles, pentagrams and runes.

I ignored the creatures that were pined beyond those walls, those nightmares weren't worth mentioning. Focusing on the massive stream of sense, the links, the _ba taem, _I picked out the two links that were important. First was mine to Sakura, it resembled the same one I had to Sasarius , though it wasn't a rising pillar that shot threw the color cacophony that were the seals. It was surprisingly soft, almost like a silken cloth that chained us together. The next was mine to Mizuki. That one had eras of irritation and purpose behind it. No loser ninja from some backwater realm that had existed outside the continuality point; No _di ton mazz _was going to even think about hurting her. And I was going to make sure it was universally understood getting between Naurto Uzumaki and his girl was asking for an excruciatingly painful demise.

That was another dangerous thought. And like the first it was not at all important.

I waited for the right moment, tracking his movements as he closed in on the pair of us. Not that it would do him any good.

* * *

This was insane, I was in the middle of a training field for hokage's sake, and I'm getting attacked. Well it was mostly Naurto but that was beside the point.

The point was I was terrified. I had an epiphany that I should of put up with the dark spooky alleys rather than follow Naurto, but damn it, I was curious. So now, I'm about to ignore every thing I learned about first aid, by riping out kunai that are embedded in the blond.

Time to be serious, time to stop being afraid and start being a ninja. My throat felt dry and swollen, my skin felt like ice, as I cold sweet from my fear. My muscle twitched and shook. I needed to focus, to mold chakra. You can't mold it easily in a panicked state. So relax, focus. Look past the fear, look to the next move.

I repeated that and similar things religiously. Naurto dropped a hand while he maintained balance. I could feel the surprisingly hot skin run down my side through my silk shirt. I felt his hand catch on my ninja gear container.

Now thats brilliant. Who ever threw those can't see and will therefore have less time to react to the throw he was going to make. I couldn't tell what he grabbed but I begin running over some of what could happen. It wasn't looking to good on our side but we had a plan, a decent one for what we had at kunai reach.

The forest around me seemed to magnify, the plants smelled more sharply, decay and growth. Naurto had closed his eyes, his breathing lite. Everything had snapped into focus the moment chakra started flowing threw me. My vision focused on the amplifying the moon light and the dark shaped that moved into view on one of the tall branches high into the forest canopy.

I pieced together my own actions and what I saw of the events that followed his arrival after the fact. Naurto happened to fill in a lot of the details the following morning.

What I saw was Naurto dark form swing, a large blur flash in front of me. Lost in the undefined movement that was the blond, a glint of steel flashed. I grabbed, aimed and threw.

The blur had turned out to be his arm that was resting on my shoulder. His form was more defined in the faint light that projected from the small cabin. Those lights had gleamed off the implements in his back allowing me to accurately grab them. I had apparently slipped my middle and index fingers in the loops on the edge of the weapons. It had allowed me to yank the weapons out before I slided them into a good throwing grip. My eyes saw the movement and the sound of Naurto's knives striking tree. Somewhere in that mess of teaching Iruka taught us to lead a target and throw where they were going to be. My mind had reacted before my thoughts did and I threw the two bloody knives along his intended path.

I rememberer the sparks fly when he had blocked my kunai with his overlarge shuriken.

* * *

Two genin! Two worthless excuses of ninja almost killed me. Near death experiences were old hat but the fact that they had gotten close. The first throw was obvious, his body had broad casted the throw, the second from the girl had been concealed, and spot on where I was headed, both were good cast.

It was the third that almost killed me. Somewhere within his movement of the first throw the blond had manged to rip out two of the ones in his back. They had looked deep when I had thrown them into him, even I doubted that I would be standing after removing one.

Pure luck had spared me. It was the instant my foot touched the ground, the point where my own movements could injure me if I didn't distribute the force properly. He had thrown when I would have had the lest likely chance to get out of the way. If this particular patch of dirt wasn't so soft both implements would of struck me. My foot had ground in to the soft soil letting me move my head a crucial few centimeters to the left. Both of the kunai were scant millimeters from my neck. The first would have doubtlessly severed my jugular, while the second would of crushed my Adams apple and caused me to drown in my own blood.

A year ago I would have been surprised, amazed at what had occurred. Now I was just pissed off.

"Not bad brat! If you could throw you might have had me." I took in the scene before me. The blond one, Naurto, was staring passively at me, while the pink haired one I knew to be Sakura stood now to his left and back a step. Both were a scrolls length away from the building. Pink haired eyes widened as she realized who had tried to kill her.

"Muziki-sensei!" There was a shrike of alarm as she the gears in her head jammed. It was a mistake on her part, a distraction I intended to take advantage of.

"Going to kill us just like you do your teammates?" I froze. Something started to stir, my hands locked and grasped around the steal loop that was the center of my comically large shuriken. What did these two brats know? They had no idea what I had been through. No idea what it was...

Naurto...that was the name in that Icha Icha paradise series. The fourth had named his kid after it, after all no one would give a kid a stupid name like Naurto. That meant that he...

"Your one to talk brat, after all those people you killed attacking our village." I laughed, it was perfect, after the Third spread all those rumors to hide the Nine tailed Demon fox. I would be a hero for this.

"Naurto...?" Sakura's voice cracked, not so much of a ninja now. If you were a hindrance to the mission than you were worthless, only death was the proper recourse. I would correct the mistake like a good sense would.

"Well my dear Sakura-san, You know the story of how the brave fourth hokage died for his village, protecting us from the big bad fox." I mocked without pause. "And the big bad fox just happened to be disappeared. To where..."

"Naurto?" The hesitance was music to my ears, the stutter that the pink haired ninja carried was truly warming to the soul. "You couldn't be, b-b be the..." She broke off again, trying to put words to thoughts. Time to twist the blade.

"Naurto Uzumaki, The Nine Tailed demon fox." I spoke it simply and the silence forged itself in the wake of my statement. I focused intently on the two children. Sakura had pressed her self back into a wall, her eyes wide, the slight hum and tenseness that signified the readiness of chakra and the capability for action disappeared. She seemed to have forgotten that I was here waiting for the opportunity to score an easy kill. She wouldn't have that chance.

The Nine Tails, didn't lose that readiness like the girl, but he wouldn't be standing for much longer. He didn't look pale at all, but it the lighting was poor and the whiskers were all but invisible. His face drew taunt as he smiled. His words washed over me in a measured ton that brokered no argument.

"The nine tales is a girl, bastard. You just made a big mistake." I missed the double meaning.

"Muziki-chan, I'm disappointed in you. I had hoped better from my trusted shinobi." I stiffened as the Third hokage's old worn voice washed over me. Worse, the bastard nine tails grinned like a fox should.

* * *

Today's drilling had gone phenomenally well. The date of the calling was a scant few moon-pass' in coming. Fate division had respond and reacted extremely well to the new surprises that had been placed in front of them despite a lack of briefing. Turning, I glanced at the short, stocky, warden that was currently serving as my aide.

"Well warden, I don't believe I'll be needing you for the rest of the day." I spoke informally with my deep bass voice. Warden Avalon, with dark eyes and sharp features, was the traditional looking denizen of the land of Pandamo, Barley pushing a meter and change, with a small nose and little neck to support his head he could have been on the recruiting posters.

"You sure Master warden? Only thing I got to look forwarded tonight is a drink at the warden club." His voice didn't have the same deep quality as mine. I was tall for my race, with several more centimeters of neck than average. Avalon happened to be a blessing despite being promoted to the position half a moon-pass ago.

I glanced up at the setting sun, It was low across the horizon. The sky had yet to change into a living work of art, yet it still handily blotted out the half moon that once signified what moon-pass it was. There were eight moon-passes in the cycle form new moon to full moon, each comprised of a four day change to visible portion of moon. The lone satellite was named Antares and my ancestors had once told the time based on its appearance. When the moon was eclipsed against the star Blaine, legend held that it would burn to ash. Not every eclipse burned the moon, this to was stated in the legends. Like clockwork the moon would burn and release the dark evil contained within the mirror like surfaces of the orbiting satellite. His race had, once again according to legend fought a beast that would die only to rise stronger than before.

I should at some point remember that it wasn't a legend when it happened to be cold harsh history. None of which was relevant at the moment.

"Well Avalon save me a seat, and have one ready for me. I'm going to annotate todays drills and recommendation before joining you. Shouldn't take me long, after today I think a drink to celebrate is in order." He looked thoughtful for a moment before replaying.

"Ill write up my own take on the drills and have them for you tomorrow morning, master." He stated calmly. "Ill keep your seat warm."

"Appreciate it warden." With a nod he turned an ambled away toward the bar on the far side of the base. With a long last glance at the drilling fields I turned and began to pace over to one of the administrative buildings.

I entered it some minuets later without fanfare. Making my way up several flights of stairs, I gave a few nods to some of the late shift administrative staff. Like most petty officer, my office was a desk with a short wall next to it to partition it from the others. My desk was meticulously organized, mostly due to the fact that I had so little to do with it. The rest of the dozen desk were deserted. Siting down on my squeaky worn chair, I grabbed a large pad of paper. Most of what I wrote was the makings of a status report, covering both the whole of the unit as well as the individuals. I placed my pen down some time later. Deciding that the drink that awaited me was long in coming, I made to stand.

"You know, this isn't going to work right." My head snapped to the sound of a high pitched squeak. There was a child, large for my race, siting on the desk that sat directly across from mine. My eyes narrowed as I took in the overall roundness and shine to the girl. She sat her legs idly kicking the air, and I wanted to reprimand who ever let her out with shoes or even socks. Her clothing, a black sun dress that fell just to the knobby knees of the girl. Placed at the hem was a spiral that changed color as it coiled in to the dark fabric. She looked far to old to be wearing such a childishly cut dress, and she really shouldn't be here.

"If your going to slay a soul beast, its going to take more than silly words and swords." Her eyes seemed to be blue but they darkened as she spoke, slowly meandering through the same color spectrum as the spiral of her dress. "Well Master warden, Katami, care for some help?" She had asked the question like a child asked for milk. She must have been schooled well to be aware of the rank insignia attached to my shoulders.

"Why would I need help from a child?" I asked.

"Because child," She spoke this with a predatory grin that didn't seem to fit on a child. "Help from the _Isha Sinfaxis _Caladice, isn't something to pass up."

* * *

Other A/n: Still looking for a beta thats intrested.


	7. Chapter 7

A/n: Re_ re_ posted the first chapter. I updated the wrong document by mistake.

I stood magnificently in the exact center of _Isha Rimfaxi. _The location was a large flat spherical realm of existence. A small slice of a space that existed on the immortal faction, held in place by the will of the goddess Rimfaxi. It was also a popular battle site for god hands. Only the oldest, and greatest of the _isha sinfaxis_ used it, twelve era and older. To fight in such a place without the raw expertise was asking for a quick death and bordered the fourth sin.

It was a enormous colosseum. There were no cut outs to hold spectators or any thing to mar the smooth perfect marble. The base of the land was flat, with a distinct lack of a horizon. Water that fell within the level portion of the stadium never ran from the site it fell, rather set motionless. Mist danced playful across the basin and up the ascending walls. The basin measured a precise two hundred and ninety nine thousand seven hundred and ninety two meters kilometers, and was half that number in depth. It was constructed of a composite stone that changed in appearance and composition over its massive length.

That didn't stop it from being entirely unbreakable, as such should be.

The distinct lack of air made the single light source, a perfect sphere of immaterial light, visible from any location within the arena. Today was another battle, another point in the endless vying for the title of greatest god hand of all time. The terms was limited to a single school of battle of personal choice, to the winer of the first dance. In the tradition of such ways, I accepted the center point as part of my rights as challenged.

My opponent was the overly lethal and slightly skewed, Talus Azaroth. I was aware of his strengths in the high profile combat every _isha_ _sinfaxis_ was taught in their training period. I was also aware that they had become something of a myth amongst the god hands that had yet to live more than three eras. Thirty three eras of my own existence had given me a plethora of opportunity polish to my own style of destructive combat and earn a similar mythic status.

Master Azaroth for his part was half a light second out. It would take light a total of one second to cross the entire arena, and that was more than enough _yeda_ to react to the god hand traversing the hundred and fifty thousand kilometers between them.

I had no need to start observing the events at the _yeda_ level. Master Azaroth was accelerating at an ascending number, one thousand two hundred and thirty four gravities (12093.2 meters per second squared). He had always been fond of using small things to great effect, one of the things that made him so lethal with the isha rashins. It was where my name, strength, came from Rashinga Raelando, Strength given form.

He would be approaching the limit of his speed in another hundred _yeda, _what mortal scholars would have refereed to as .99c. Read ninety nine percent the speed of light. In the world of mortals, many strange things are said to happen as one started to travel that fast, here in this place ruled by the will of gods behest to the laws of a world that was forgotten from the mortals who had shaped it in the fifth era, that was simply how fast one moved, mass and force be damned. God hands headed only the will of the Almighty and the deity we served. Master Azaroth seemed to have forgotten this as he held no allegiance to any one. A flaw I had yet to rectify in proper manner.

On the side note, the choice to use the measurements of the first human world, was the result of their victory in the second war of reality. Earth prime, the birth place of all human life within existence, had been destroyed in what heralded the end of the ninth ear and started of the tenth. The god hand Talus Azaroth, who destroyed the planet just prior to as part of the unorthodox method of training, archived his god hand status at the very begin of the tenth ear irked me greatly. It was against the order of things for a god hand to only require first blood to gain rank, something he did within his first era of existence.

The achievement itself didn't bother me. As the Almighty made the first life, establishing the path in which all things move forward, the great lord of existence dictated that his creations would continue to do that which had not been done before. Despite my misgivings, I had contested the former god hand of Twisted since my second ear of ascendancy. As long as he followed the old ways when he issued his challenge, I would meet him honestly and honorably on the filed of battle.

The mist was guided into a lens to spot the other god hand, my sight was hardly better then any other human being, as were the rest of the human senses that I had not been born with. It was an idle task, one done by my natural influence of the reality around me. His form was no longer the human shell we wore just as mine wasn't. Though both vaguely human his legs were no longer jointed properly, nor were his arms. His feet had gained long claws and appeared to be more like talons than human feet. His hands retained the human shape with a slimmer set of dark jade talons. His entire form had become long cords of taunt muscles, his ribs formed the bias of an animal like structure that would look odd in motion but less so when still. He still adorned the vestments with the large bent oval upon his back. His large feathery white wings cast a deceptive air on his skills with the creationist arts.

His form in motion was poetry to those who were looking at things properly. Perfectly efficient to gain the maximum strength from every single moments. Flashing claws failed to scratch or scuff the polished floor as he arced around the far edge of their arena. His long braid present, flowing seamlessly as if it was commanded how to move in sync with the rest of his body. His tail, a long whip like appendage twitched in a flowing pattern matching the gait.

The yeda ticked by, the smallest of change to realities clock. Talus Azaroth was now just over half a light second away from me, a yead later he was just under a third of a light second out His leap had been directly at me, silhouetted by the frothing miasma that separated this arena from the rest of reality.

He was still three yeda away, three chances to change what he was attempting. Three chance for me to react. Three yeda from the first move in the first dance. He was a snap shot as the infinity small gap between indesmal slipped by. His jade talons flashed in the light as his blades materialized from the mist. His piercing blue eye visible.

Two yeda, now my own killing steal weapon, a large spear materialized in my hands, I ignored its appearance as Talus's clawed feet touched down a mere twenty thousand kilometers from me. I had fallen into a simple readiness as the we ticked off to one yeda. The blue was gone now, the matte brown opened as his face remained unchanged.

One yeda, ten meters in front of me. He was no longer on the ground, rather in a low flat arc. Both eyes rested upon me; slightly curved blade of the Light and Dark Sides of Twisted, gleamed in the pale light. I prepared my own weapon, the Cry for Order.

Zero yeda, The point of my Cry for Order paried the Dark Side, and my leap carried me over the Light Side as it flashed through the space my body had occupied the yeda before.

The first dance had begun.

* * *

"The Kyubi no Kitsune indeed fell into the hands of a women child." The third hokage spoke as he was seated at his desk. Beside me, Naurto fidgeted as he kept bringing his hand to remove the bandages warped around his back. I slapped his hands every time and he kept shooting me reproachful looks.

"So Naurtos not a demon?" I asked, the whole encounter seemed surreal. I wanted to believe it was a dream. That my sensei was going to break into the room at any moment.

"To the best of my knowledge Naurto is not a demon of any sort. This however returns us to our more pressing mater. In order to understand why you must not speak of this, beyond of course my own orders, I will tell you of the events that ended the fourth hokage." With a show of clearing his throat my leader steepled his hands together.

"As you know the demon fox was stopped by the fourth hokage." His eyes seemed to fixate on Naurto, I ignored it and waited for him to continue. "The events that led to the destruction of said fox are still shrouded in mystery. This includes exactly what became of Minato Namikaze. It is because of this, I sent young Naurto, as well as several others who were orphaned in the attack out to become the first generation of information ninja. These ninja were to develop and refine techniques that would hopefully led to the origin of the demons as well as any clue what happened to on that sad day in Konoha history." The third hokage unsteepled his hand and brought a gnarled hand to pointed hat. He swept the hat off and placed it lightly on one of the shorter stacks of forms.

"Unfortunately, the tenuous peace that was the result of the temporary ceases fire just prior to the Nine Tailed Foxes attack was not to last. The other major ninja villages stood poised like vultures to strike at the scared remains of our village. In order to avoid certain destruction two steps were taken. First was the proposed alliance with the hidden village of sand, second was the rumors I deliberately spread."

"The sand village was still reeling from earlier decisive defeats against the harsh stone ninja. The alliances was born out of need more than any desire to relate or prosper. It was fortuitous that the foxes destruction was hidden well enough, that my rumors took root. After all a sealed demon, even one sealed in what would have been a one and a half year child, was more than a sufficient threat to prevent any large scale action against leaf village. As the ninja villages returned to strength, the reinstatement of the chunin selection examinations cerated a more solid and stable peace."

"I understand Sakura," He held his hand to forestall the interruption that rested on the tip of my tongue. "That this does not necessarily mesh with what the history books tell us. However, until I can validate what happened on that night over twelve years ago, I am at a loss to correct what is already widely believed." Silence filled the air, as the moments stretched on I waited for hokage-sama to continue. I wasn't sure how long I stood waiting with more question than answerers buzzing about my head.

"I believe," The hokage continued after what seemed an eternity "That you understand not to speak of the fox in any such capacity." He now looked directly at me now and I gazed at the floor unable to meat his eyes. "Is this understood Sakura?"

"Yes hokage-sama." I spoke quietly.

"Well than I shall have some one met you outside to escort you home. Tiger." He spoke the name crisply and no sooner than he had, a swirl of leaves announced the presence of an anbu. Even than I stumbled backwards at his appearance. "Fetch Panda and have her escort Sakura-chan home." With a nod and another swirl of leaves the dark clothed ninja vanished.

"If you will kindly wait outside, I wish to have a quick word with Naurto-kun before I dismiss him as well." I turned and wobbled my way out the door. Shutting it behind me I collapsed against the cold wood as I heard the hokage's voice filter through. "Well what do you think of young Sakura, its rare to have some one so young stand up so remarkably well, given the circumstance."

Naruto's voice filter through afterwards, and its tone was unlike any thing I had ever heard before. A soft fox like baying mixed with cold harsh jagged stone. It wasn't until three years later that I understood why or even how he spoke like such. I puzzled the words he spoke at length without the courage to ask him; I never learned until he explained it to me over breakfast.

"She one of the most dangerous beings I have ever met."

Panda had shown up right after and I never got clarification.

That had occurred two weeks ago. At the moment however I was at my wits end. My voice exploded out as my rage and frustration of the past two weeks.

"We are not taking another stupid D rank mission!!! Naurto can't handle it! Hes destroyed two dishwashers, broken at lest four other major appliances, gotten old man tendo sick from his attempt to make something that isn't ramen. The last kid we had to watch still won't turn his lights out after Naurto read him a bed time story!!!"

Iruka-sensei looked scandalize and some chunin who was bringing the hokage an updated mission report stopped to stare. The hokage rose his eyebrows until they disappeared under his hat.

"I fail to see the logic, if your team mate can not handle the lowest of ninja ranking missions, why should I place him at risk so you wont have to sit through "Stupid D rank mission"?"

"Hokage-sama, despite the fact that dope here can't seem to grasp some of the most basic of task, He isn't helpless. Without him we wouldn't of passed the bell test that Kakashi-sensei gave us. When the idiot wants to he can come up with a decent plan." Sasuke's cold measured uninterested tone almost made me squeal. Naurto was siting on the floor ignoring both myself and the hokage.

"I had a really good sea food ramen last night, but the curry one that the old man made this morning was something else." I heard him mumble to Kakashi who looked on with polite disinterest. The hokage looked at the ninja in front of him before his worn chuckle washed over us.

"Well it seems that your jonin has already been teaching you lessons in how to ignore your esteemed leader." He chortled mirthfully as I stared at the age spots on his worn face. The hokage might want to do something about those. How could you face down any ninja looking like that? He continued refocusing my thoughts. "I have an simple escort mission that will take you out of the village. If thats acceptable?" He asked, his eyebrows climbing into his hat once more.

"Of course hokage-sama." Our sensei spoke for the first time since arriving over the teal covered book that he had recently acquired. "We will have to meet the client later if possible, id like it so they had at lest some respect for us." Again our aged leader chuckled, the rich laugh falling over us. "Very well."

Kakashi sensei began to escort us from the hall when his leader requested that he stay behind.

* * *

Naurto was troubling. One day he breaks into my library and the only evidence that someone broke in was a missing scroll and a shattered door. The next he ignores me to discuss ramen. It was hard sometimes to remember that child was almost entirely unknown. Despite our agreement I still knew very little. He was here to repay a debt incurred and the method was to treat Sakura Haruno as his lord and master. The other thing I could be certain was his devout following of _Meta Na, _or the nine sin.

Where ever Uzumaki was from, they didn't quite treat them the same. That was matter for another day.

"I couldn't help but note Kakashi-kun that you happen to be reading a different book?" I asked the copycat-nin. He closed it for a moment staring at the cover, a set of symbols that I was starting to associate with _isha sinfaxis, _as Naurto referred to himself as. It was teal and didn't look thick enough to be more than hundred and fifty pages.

"Its a bribe, At lest thats what I let it be." I paused, than slowly raised a pure gray eyebrow. Just one. The look clearly had the desired effect as he fixed me with a fairly expressionless gaze and continued

"Naurto convinced Sasuke-kun and Sakura-chan to distract me while he went and got this book to bribe me." He didn't seem to want to elaborate further, but he didn't need to.

"Hes smarter than he looks. To determine the true intent of such a test as well as fulfill it even if he failed to bribe you with such book. Sometimes I wonder just how smart and dangerous he really is."

* * *

I happen to despise walking. Its slow, boring and takes more effort than its worth. I would much rather do single kilometer vaults in order to travel, takes less time and effort for the return.

Compared to my usual travel, walking was so unbearably slow. In my presence form I could manage an impressive one thousand three hundred and seventy four gravities (13465.2 meters a second squared) within atmosphere compared to my unfavorable top acceleration of one thousand six hundred and eighty two gravities (16483.6 meters a second squared) out side it. The fastest of god hands belonged to that devilish sprite of a god hand Caladice, with one thousand three hundred and thirty six gravities (13092.8 meters a second squared) and one thousand eight hundred and forty seven respectively (18100 meters a second squared).

Due to the lying obnoxious drunk we were making five kilometers to the hour. For conditions that was average. Both Sakura and Sasuke could do better and I could top speed in atmosphere just pushing past seventy to eighty percent _c. _Kakashi-sensei would rather walk slow so he wouldn't have to work so hard or at lest have more time to read his book. The man was extremely good at concealing his actual feelings.

I snorted as our sensei lightly admonished us for our disrespect to old man third. It bothered him more than he showed. He was hesitant to open up to us; It was obvious that he wasn't ready to get attached to us and it showed in how he handled us. Given time or something drastic and he probably would begin to.

We continued on for another kilometer or two, and I took a moment to examine my soundings. Hard packed dirt road marred by cart and hoof traffic. The forest that sounded the leaf village was vast, almost a few hundred kilometers and we were only a few dozen out. It was green, bushy and dry.

The puddle was an interesting thing to see. From my eye alone it looked like a small puddle of water in a pothole in the road. The rest of my sense paint a picture of two people standing back to back. A large dark cloak wrapped around the pair, hiding the greens and browns of wavy color splotches that made up their camouflage. Heavy leather gauntlets were worn on the arm and they wore some kind of breathing um, thingy. The links flared as Kakashi glanced at the puddle and subtly begin to bring himself on guard.

I ambled slightly of kilter, out of the way of Kakashi. I gained clear unobstructed paths of Sakura-Chan as I did this. Again the _isah ba taems_ showed that neither of them noticed. Even as the rose from their deceptions to assault the second strongest member of our team, they failed to note that he was waiting for them.

Glinting steel arced gracefully as the set of diamond shaped bladed chains dragged their way slowly to encircle Kakashi-sensei. Slow to me at lest; I just stood still and watched. The fact that they had severed the aggressive lines to kakashi and the quick use of substitution jutsu proved that the two mist ninja were ignorant that they had failed to kill the famed copy cat ninja.

Sakura cried out. Her long mass of soft rose pink splayed out as she jerked back in surprise. My eyes tracked the chain and the speed smear as they preformed some sort of flash sprinting technique to slip in behind me.

"Second one." The words were muted by the heavy breathing whatever they wore.

Sasuke refused to stand idle. As the demon brothers yanked the chains closed shredding the unfortunate log, Sasuke was jamming his hands within his holsters for a throwing star. A high leap brought the writhing chains in to line of site. They leapt at me, the dark hoods and mask Thick gloves with a massive ring of metal to hold the extending chain were sharpened with claws. Mist forehead protectors gleaming in the mid day sun. Their chains moved like fang bared snakes.

A flash of metal herald by the loud metallic grinding of shuriken blasting the chains into one of the many surrounding trees. The kunai that was thrown after was thrown into the holes in the two metal weapons, effectively locking them in place.

Sasuke wasted no initiative, flipping expertly between the pair of ninja and landed directly on the large heavy gauntlets as the chunin desperately struggled to grab them out. delivering two solid kicks with as he straitened in the air. Regaining his footing, the mist ninja severed the chains from their weapons. The first sprinted around making an attempt on the old man. The second did a quick back step and tried to juke around me and strike me from the back.

Sasuke heard Sakura's cry as she took up a guarded position in front of the drunk bridge builder. A brave panicked cry arose from her.

"Old man, stand back!" It was shrieked high pitched, and the soon to be dead mist ninja lunged at my charge, clawed hand out stretched. Sasuke turned his head at Sakura's cry.

If he had been a god hand, He would have noticed me immediately. All eighteen of the senses he didn't have would scream at him as I used every single amount of strength I had to reach my max acceleration instantaneously.

A yeda later my feet hit the trunk of a tree. My black ninja sandals burying through the bark and embedding them in the hard wood of the trunk. In my hand a gleaming sliver of god steal, untouched by the blood of the now halved ninja. The force dissipated outward behind me, creating a massive

wind gust that violently shook the trees as it washed through the forest.

His body had been cleaved by the reverse side of my ninjato. The lose baggy cloths hid the organs but couldn't stop the ground from drinking the dark red liquid. His hand was still out stretched his eyes still locked in focus. Even at the speed I traveled he was knocked a meter to the side, away from the drunk bridge builder. Away from Sakura.

Kakashi-sensei was still staring at the spot where I had ended the former brother. Even as he stood restraining the ninja I could tell he had lost track of me. The brother turned his captive head and his eyes met mine for the a mere instant. I smirked at him as the confusion rebounded around the clearing. It would have been a good time to say something along the lines of not threating Sakura, but instead I just stood vertical and watched the others react.

* * *

A/N: Most of the Oc god hands are foils to explain more about things that Naruto wouldn't relly stop to explain, as part of my effort to bring him closer to a his older characterization. Still looking for some one to beta read these.


	8. Chapter 8

I had thought something was slightly off. Kakashi-sensei was quite skilled and after managing to land a blow on the two ninja so easily they couldn't have been good enough to take him down. They might have truly taken them off guard but this was easily false as he restrained the one that jumped Naurto.

Naruto had vanished, though I wasn't looking at him when he had done so. He could have taken cover to think up a plan or the like. He wasn't much of a fighter, and he didn't even react. I had thought that he might be in need of help and, it irked me that I was wrong

I continued to inspect the body. It was obviously dead and an oddly still death at that. The mist ninja appeared to have been badly damaged from some sort of attack. Tch, an Uchiha not knowing a jutsu, how absurd. Despite this the blood had been splattered from the body. The pool that was forming outward around the body as it flowed into crack and crevice, wasn't the only place blood existed.

It was noticeable now that he had been entirely cleaved in two. The cloak of cloth that hid the damage was torn slightly and fell unevenly across the small gap, hardly a decimeter wide.

In my youth I survived when the rest of my family had fallen. They were all dead, lifeless, stabbed, cut, burnt unrecognizable masses. There was nothing to them other than they simply stopped working. Stopped when things didn't work right, when _He_ had broke them. The tool was different the results the same.

I dragged my eyes in the direction of the splatter blood, it looked very similar to the paint splatters that had plagued the village. The trees swayed and the wind that had roared so violently a moment ago had calmed to a light breeze. Standing entirely horizontally, Naurto Uzumaki was plainly showing his disregard for gravity or incredible raw strength. The only thing about him that continued to answer gravities call was the wild mass of hair and the lose folds of his clothes. He stood erect, or would have was he not sideways and carried in his hand a satin silvery blade. In his hand the sword looked like it would have been short sword in another's hands. However, his much smaller frame made this less so, something akin to a normal katana

The jutsu was new. It was fast and something a ninja like Naurto couldn't have known.

* * *

"Simply to awesome for you to comprehend." That had been the words Naurto-kun choose when asked about his fighting capabilities. I was watching the god hand, without revealing my sharingan, and I couldn't hope to track him with that insane burst acceleration. Unfortunately, despite Naurto being more than capable I wasn't confident about Sasuke or even myself.

"But sensei, we managed to handle the pair of them just fine!" Sakura pointed to the tide ninja. Thick coils of rope were strung around him, on top of binding his hands. Left to his own devices he wouldn't find to much trouble removing himself from captivity, not that I intended to leave him to his own devices.

"And you, Sasuke?" I turned my only uncovered eye to the prodigy. Ignoring the slight ticklish sensation that ran across my nose, I sighed at his nod.

"No choice I suppose than. Naurto, Sakura, Sasuke, escort Tazuna-san and get going, we need to get ahead of possible ambushes." I needed to make sure there wouldn't be a second attempt. I had no desire to get the three of them involved in the harsher side of ninja existence. I turned to the bound ninja. I heard the four sets of feet strike the ground and I waited until I could only hear the the sound of life filtering through the trees and earth.

A precautionary shadow clone that I had created to make sure I could cover the bridge builder and my team was waiting, effectively invisible behind the tree the ex mist ninja was attached to. With a heavy sigh I faced the mist ninja once more.

I studied him as he was pined to the tree. He looked like every captured ninja I had seen before. The lines in his face, the eyes, nothing stood out to me. The ninja didn't look like any ninja I had served with nor could I attach him to any one I had known before. I must have appeared to be board to him. With more than half my face covered, I'm sure I looked uninterested.

"What will you do with me Leaf ninja?" His voice still muted by what was probably a respirator.

"I'm sorry mist-san, I will make this as painless as I can." My voice sounded lazy, even to me. The clone behind the tree took a single step to gain clear access to the confined ninja. Lighting fast hands flashed and in one quick smooth motion, they snapped the neck of the bound ninja. It was a sickening sound to hear, even though it didn't sound any worse than someone loudly popping their hands and joints.

I took a kunai out from one of my holsters and hacked the bindings away, trying my best to not look at the lulled head that seemed just a bit to far in leaning. With the help of my clone I dragged his body to lay next to what I assumed was his brother. We had laid the severed ninja a short ways off the main road. Naurto had been the one to help carry him out of the way. When we had set the body down he looked at me spoke in a voice that was probably his real one.

"Give them what respects you can." It was low spoken, out of ear shot of any one but me. I had wondered what a fox would sound like one could talk. A slight whine, elongation of the "f" sounds, and something cunning. After setting the ninja down he returned to what appeared to be his customary place besides Sakura.

From a few hand seals, I preformed one of my limited earth jutsu. Chakra flowed from me into the ground, turning it soft and malleable. The bodies began to sink into the ground like it was quicksand. Recalling my chakra as the remains faded out of my site, I took out the mist forehead protector that I had taken from them. I etched the gleaming metal with the symbols that read, "The demon brothers."

I leaned forward ignoring the slight strain on my body from the rapid movements from earlier. With well practiced ease I tide the cloth through the loop in the kunai before burying it into the ground. I watched as my clone dispelled into smoke. My mind was slammed with a third person perspective of the fight and my own actions afterward.

If I had to say why I thought the shadow clone jutsu was forbidden, I would point out that I remembered watching myself execute a ninja as I stood there impassively.

* * *

I distracted myself. I looked at Sasuke-kun, Old man-san, the trees, the clouds. I listened, the sound of our footfalls on the ground, the sound of birds, the rustle of the leaves in the wind. Any thing that wasn't Naurto.

At first, I thought he had lied to me. But the words that he spoke when he introduce himself to our class came back to me.

"Well mostly I learned the old school way of gathering information. But I picked up a few fighting jutsu, some really good ones that show how great I am." It was one more thing to think about I supposed.

I really couldn't believe Kakashi sensei either. "That jerk almost got as killed!" The impulsive crazy insane alter ego of myself shouted out. The more logical part of my mind agreed. But my heart...

He _believed_ in us. He had to have felt confident that we could handle ourselves. Sasuke-kun did, so did Naurto, and I just stood there.

Well that isn't not true. If I hadn't of defend Tazuna-san, Neither Sasuke or Naurto could have acted so freely. The image of that man, that beast flashed through my head once more. He would have killed the old man, he almost killed me! Naurto came through for me and Sasuke didn't let me down either. If being a ninja meant watching their backs, or just patching them up after the took care of the enemy, or just defend the objective while they took care of things... maybe, I could do this.

* * *

Walking with a non nonchalant air and absolutely no focus on any thing in particular he seemed to be entirely unmoved by the events that had transpired. Aside from a short and patchy explanation, of the technique and a bit about his sword, nothing much had been said. The idiot had a long way to go before being cryptic, I had grown up with some of the best ninja the world had ever seen, before my brother...

His sword, a weapon that had been forged in the name of a great fox deity., was a slim silvery blade. Standard length for a ninjato and incredibly detailed. The hilt was warped in a tightly wound black and orange cloth. The pommel was forged in the shape of two fox tails, pined between the core of the blade and the ring that defined the guard. What was impressive about the weapon was the etching in the blade. Considering the motif, what I assumed were a pair of foxes, running the full length of the weapon. Etched as ferocious as any dragon, the detail work was incredible. I wouldn't have been surprised to see them leap of the blade if they wanted to.

When asked how he acquired the blade he refused to speak, rather began to harass Tazuna-san. He cracked a few jokes about how his old man bones couldn't keep up with his far older ones.

Naurto never could make a good joke. Still he showed far more potential than I would have guessed. Pangs of old hurt resonated. They left me feeling hot and stiff despite my limber youth. I reassured myself. The village, Naurto, Sakura, Kakashi, they were temporary, a training field to what was to come.

I kept myself busy where I could. No one seemed to wish to talk about much of anything. For the next few days this continued as we made are way across the fire country. We reached the coast after the long trek and acquired passage to wave by boat.

Here Tazuna finally give his side of the story. A shipping baron muscled his way into the nations government and caused economic collapse. We were heading to the small port town which a large bridge was being constructed. It was quietly sponsor by what remained of the lands government and the client was the bridge builder to complete it. Poverty forced him to take what ninja they could. Little was said as we took a small launch to sneak into the land unnoticed. Kakashi left an ominous warning that the enemy would note the lack of success on his hired ninja. I was prepared.

* * *

The _isah ba taems_ had been pretty obvious to me. They, the shipping baron, had hired an old acquaintance of mine. He begun to shadow us once we boarded the dingy craft to take us into port town proper. Once we had made it far enough from shore, I casually leaned close to Sakura and swiped a kunai off her person.

She of course protest and a muted orange of impatient and the begins of what would become extremely painful bruises for me became wispy about her. Giving her no chance to respond other, than a unnecessary compliment about how nice her hair looked. As her emotions revved up I casually cast the blade directly at where my old friend was sulking withing the confines of foliage.

"Naurto that's reckless! Relly now..." She fixed me with an exasperated look. At lest before I tackled her to the ground. There was a pause between the two. In my mind I knew I was protecting her from the whirlwind of steel that scythed over us a moment ago. I might have enjoyed the close contact a bit more than I should have. Despite her physical conditioning she was still that very soft youth that was pleasant to touch.

What, children are soft! Its not like I was noticing any of her other nice feature or finding my self attracted to the women I knew she would be come. I'm far to old to let myself fall for that again.

Her hair did still retain a very dream like cheery blossom scent to it though. Even as she eventually scrambled out of the tackle, I blocked out what the former mist ninja said to sensei. When he placed a hand to reveal his sharingan, I did mossy close to him, he would probably want to know about the former Mist ninja.

* * *

Zabuza, the demon of the mist village. Not a chance I was going to face this with out using my sharingan. This wasn't a good place to fight any mist ninja, the large lake behind my opponent, dense thick tropical jungle to my left and right, leaving me relatively narrow dirt clearing with no good places to hide in. There wasn't enough forest on either side to disappear in either. The lake might work though, it widen before rounding out into a tear drop. If worse comes to worse I could take the combat to the lake itself, id rather not fight a ninja that has access to all sorts of high powered water jutsu to play with over water but it could force him to bring out his higher strength more exhausting abilities.

"You should be careful with this guy." Naurto using his baying voice once more from just over my shoulder. "Hes a half-ling, demon, lowest class." I managed to keep the surprise of my face once again. I had to maintain extreme discipline over my body in order to face such an opponent. My eye never left body, constantly searching for any weakness or markers to reveal flaws and holes in his techniques.

"Is he now?" I asked, keeping my voice low to avoid being heard. I only had memory of one demon and it was more than I ever wanted to meet.

"Yea, expect him to be strong, and recover well. You won't have to worry about him pulling out any demon abilities. But leave him alone to long and he will recover a lot of chakra, small wounds too. That which might kill most might not kill him." There went any hope of attempting to outlast him.

Lifting my forehead protector over my eye, a smirk formed beneath my mask. At the lest, Sakura and Naruto would live. Sakura would probably demand Naurto save Sasuke. I would protect my team if I couldn't than I would have to relay on someone else. For the first time since I lost my sensei, I believe I could live with myself if I did that. No mater the out come.

* * *

I sighed as I watched Kakashi get trapped in the bubble of water. I had a few options, none of them favorable. I turned placing my back to the Water ninja and his freshly formed clone. The half ling paused, I doubted he remembered me from helping him plot the death of the mist kage. I was taller when he saw me last, and that had been fourteen years ago. Lesser demons, were never very smart.

* * *

I was cursed, I had to be. Jonin! Stupid idiotic Jonin! It was bad enough to see the one ninja die. Now a ninja that could trap Kakashi sensei was going to kill us all. Yay me. _And I didn't get to make out with Sasuke or Naurto!_ The words bounced around my mind, yelled from the inner me.

Naurto once again looked calm and collected under impending annihilation. Sasuke, looked calm, but months of stalking told me he was tense. My mind broke down into a puddle of goo. I shook slightly as the wave of lethal intent swept over me. I remember the lecture on intent and chakra. When molding Chakra the body naturally excludes some; when a ninja focus on his instincts and desires to kill the result is felt as a hazy blood lust. An instinctual wight that would bear down on you.

"Ne Sakura, how bout ya throw Sasuke?" Naurto asked as he faced us. Behind him the mist clone raised an eye over his own mask. Naurto went through a set of seals and than taped the silvery blade at his hip.

"Leaving me all the work again, Uzumaki?" Sasuke voice spoke off to my side and I turned to face him. A transformation jutsu and a throw? What did he get that I didn't.

"A ninja is some one who survives countless brushes with death. In other words brats like you, don't have right to call yourselves ninja." The clone made entirely of water spoke. It was unnerving really. The two were identical right down to the incredibly unfashionable camouflaged bracers. Matching boots, I really needed to give this man some fashion tips. Maybe a shirt to go with it to tie the ensemble together.

Zabuza brought his hand in front of him. The mist that had once more swirled about. Coalescing and condensing into a distorted solid haze. For a few moments I could see nothing. A loud grunt from fashion blunder smashed through the mist, it was close to me. Shifting white lazily danced about, kind of like Shikamaru. An uneasy sense flirted about me with the silence in wake of his grunt stretching endlessly.

The haze scattered as the insanely large blade flashed into view, appearing like a specter. The grinding of steal once more reverberated through the clearing blasting the mist from around the combatants. Naurto had somehow manged to stop the massive cleaver with the slim ninjato he carried.

"Kage bushin no jutus!" I couldn't follow his hands but he somehow managed to preform the shadow clone technique. Four or five Naurto's faded into existence and managed to brace him. crowding around him. It was slightly comical to see them huddled around the original, one had both hands along the dull side of the sword. The others had placed themselves in what ever manner possible to hold back the monster that was Zabuza.

"Oh? Shadow Clones? Several of them too." A massive primal cry echoed as the ninja raised the sword and slammed it down almost faster than my eyes could follow. The clones shook and trembled from the massive force. A pair of them grumbled quite loudly.

"Hey, kill this guy already!"

"Oi, Isha Sasarius, quit messing around!"

I hadn't manged to hear the clones clearly, but I added the half jumbled statements to the list of odd things Naurto did and said.

"Sakura!" Sasuke yelled as he turned to me. His black hair was no longer flawlessly set, and his face had a few smudges on it from when we had collided with the ground during the previous exchange with Kakashi-sensei. His eyes however just down right burned. Dark pools of forged steel stole my breath. The air crackled with sparks as the intense stare bore into me. My words half formed to ask what he wanted melted into nothing as I stared. At lest until several black clad forms blindsided him.

Zabuza laughed at the cloud of smoke that had engulfed the fallen pair. I reflectively clenched my hands together in front of me. Two figures sprinted out of the hazy ninja smoke. I recognized Naurto and Sasuke. Naurto flashed past me, but not before placing the surprisingly light Fox Blood in my hand.

I looked at my reflection in the polished metal, only to see Sasuke reflection distorted by the etching but there anyways. I realized than what that odd feeling that tickled me slightly. It was my mind pointing out that I was holding The Sasuke Uchilia instead of the real blade that Naurto held on to. The two forms bounded at the mist ninjas clone easily skimming over the lake. They grappled with the mist ninja. Naurto came low, swinging his legs out at the last instant to dodge the cleaver from The water clone. Sasuke came high planting both hands on the spike hair just after the ninja swung his sword down. Naurto slipped his hand through the hole that was forged into the sword and vaulted over the clone.

My mind was sharper than I was. It cataloged things that I didn't understand, and went threw them later. Somehow it understood that had they engaged the real missing nin in such a manor, the lake beneath their feat would deepened with Naurto's and Sasuke-kun's blood. The clone didn't react as fast as the real one, it also didn't respond as smartly as some one of Zabuza capability would.

The two closed in, Sasuke had gotten the better push off the clones head and had arrived first. The sword was swung and Sasuke was far to slow to avoid it. Even though I knew and understood it wasn't the real one, my heart skipped a beat and the irrational fear washed over me. The clone vanished in its own self contained ninja smoke. Naruto took advantage of the round hole once more in the ninjas weapon and yanked.

Just like two weeks ago my mind just clicked, I knew it was time to throw in that instant.

* * *

The deck of my flagship was pristine. While not traditionally this well spit-polished, a battle was about to possibility occur. The room was comprised entirely of polymers of all makes and types. It was a large room for a warship. At five meters long and three wide, it was a step up from the cramped bridges of the destroyers that I had commanded before. The sides were lined with four backed chairs that sprung out of the plastic floor as if they had been grown there. Two meters of displays and readouts highlighted a large volume of information that was of great importance to the fine men and women that maned them.

To me what was important was that I did not have my usual morning coffee. For the past six months my head cook had seen to it I had a specially brewed cup of black goodness ready in my adjutants hand as soon as I hit the bridge.

Speaking of my adjutant he had arrived back on the bridge with a distinct lack of bean juice.

"Sir, the cook regrets to inform you that the replicator in charge of coffee has been utterly savaged. In fact the cook who discovered it didn't recognize what it was until, he connected that a replicator went there. I believe that this may be the first sign of saboteurs attempting to hamper our effectiveness."

The crisp voice, textbook parade rest while not out of place, was amazing consider what had just come out of my assistants mouth. The surprise must have showed on my face.

"I believe you remember what happened when the replicator got set to decaff, the entire non-com officers almost mutinied. Such would be an effective yet relatively easy method to reduce our capabilities, sir." My adjutant did in fact have a point. However...

"Tell me how was the unit destroyed?" I asked.

"It appears to be a combination of kinetic strikes and the use of an edge weapon. Considering there was no shell fragments or incendiaries and the indentations were made by what appear to be hand and feet strikes, there are no leads to method or suspects." I had always like this man, he always tended to hand me more information than needed. Even going so for to anticipate my next questions and supply preemptive answers.

"Thank you, that will be all." I turned to glance at the rest of the bridge. The floor was a light Grey with the monitors being framed in black. My chair was behind me and it was obviously the best chair on the ship, captains prerogative if you would. At the far wall was a single display, currently of the star that we were approaching. I paid it no heed as I looked at the two seats where weapon control inter-phases sat. Two chairs that were set low with large displays that almost encased them. Behind them was the helm. A podium with two sets that held my helmsman. Both were doing their jobs of navigating us through the solar radiation, so I paid no head to them either.

My eyes rested on the man who reclined with his feet kicked up on the edge of one of the input panels. He had his hair in a short spike that fit regulation perfectly, with a matching goatee. He wore far to many layers of black cloth that made it impossible to assign a name to the garment or much else about him for that matter. Each cloth was marked with a series of descending hexagons that shrunk as one ran along the insignia.

"Any reason why you decide the coffee maker had to die Nandasca?" I ask the man.

"It attacked me." His voice was a deep lazy sandpaper.

"An cacophony object attacked you?" A great big sigh emanated from the man.

"I'm a god hand." He paused a moment before continuing " A being of destruction that is older than your entire civilization. Just because I never learned how to operate a replicator, doesn't mean I am above destroying this small fleet for no logical reason at all. Besides." The god hand leaned his head back his pale eyes looked into mine as his head rested over the chair back. He grinned rakishly as a slight feeling of dread begun to well up within me.

"You should see what I did to the one that makes doughnuts when it called my mother fat."


	9. Chapter 9

There was something special about this ninja team. It was to be expected, as they were trained by a former anbu captain. The attack plan of the leaf genin was extremely basic. The execution was masterful. Only once did the enemy show any strength, a single shadow clone jutsu. Every other action was concealed from sight.

I briefly entertained the thought that the children were Anbu in disguise to attack Zabuza-sama. The dark haired one caught my eye. He wasn't the same as other ninja I had met, in fact none of them were. The pink haired one was hardly better than a babe on this kind of battlefield, but she never ran. The dark haired boy was fast, almost as fast as I was. And the blond...

The two practically hovered over the water as they rushed to meet my master. The blow to the boy in the blue shirt and tan shorts was executed masterfully, even if the mist nin still had to hold the other leaf ninja in check. Zabuza-sama...

I readied a sebon from the folds of my clothes as a glint of silver skimmed through the air. The aimwould have been perfect, but the female nin didn't take into account that the object would fly threw the air differently when I categorized it as a ninjato. The turbulent air should have sent the blade wide. It flew like a bird flew north, flawlessly.

My master had seen it coming as well, pairing up the facts. Every movement up to this point had been to open him to that single sword throw. Lesser opponents, chunin, even other lesser jonin would have failed, but this was the demon of the mist. He let his sword fall, and his hand flashed out to catch the silvery short blade. I relaxed my sebon as my master roared and swung for the blond ninja that just let go of master's weapon.

I was glad the mask covered my face, I couldn't help but wince when the short sword became the lithe dark haired. The sound of the strike resounded about the clearing, the last step I missed.

"I'm sorry Zabuza-sama, I failed you here." I whispered the words to the wind. The blond was kicked in one smooth motion of my masters legs. The tasteful camouflaged bracers vanished at the speed of the strike, wrenching the sword from the blond while throwing him far clear. He crashed in a cacophony of noise on the far side of the lake, disappearing from view. The massive cleaver arced lazily up at high speed. I couldn't see the front of the last remaining leaf-nin but his stance as gravity retook its hold was clear, he knew he wouldn't dodge it.

The kunai from the other masked ninja intercepted the sword. The copy ninja mimic Zabuza perfectly kicking dark hair neatly across the lake. He landed just past the edge of the water and rolled a few times before his momentum bleed. He struggled to his feet a moment later but I ignored him. My eyes were solely focused on Hayate Kakashi.

He had kicked with out looking, staring deep into the eyes of my master, holding back the massive cleaver with out visible effort. Water dripped as his hair, once tall and strait drooped lazily.

"Pst" A hissing sound got my attention, only because it was hardly half a meter to my left on the large tree branch I stood on. Without thought, I turned and released a set of sebon needles directly at the sound. There wasn't any noise or any thing that indicated my sebon struck any thing. Quick smooth motions brought me in a loose throwing stance with a sebon in each hand.

My heart stopped. I understood now what my master had said about this man. His appearance was strikingly unique, now that he was closer I could see more of him that I couldn't see before. His face was much more jagged than I would have assumed from what I had seen from him at range. Defenitly boyish, without a hint of feminism. Blue eyes, piercing, yet soft and ethereal. A name the zauble would never forget. The ease at which this boy had managed to be underestimated had left a mark on the former seven swords man. There was a distinct difference in the boy who fought with zeaubl-sama and the man that crouched on the branch next to me. Both hands cupped around his mouth to focus the sound as if he was trying to whisper to me.

He looked at me playfully as he lowered his hands. There wasn't the feeling that I was being set up to be prey, nor waves of darkness and killing intent. I had a feeling from the way this man was described that he would be scared, bloodthirsty and evil. Instead he was a cute handsome who would have dozens of fangirls chasing after him.

"Tell Zabuza that his old friend Sasarius is coming to talk to him." He spoke and a chill worked its way across me. His voice sounded evil in my ears, and dread welled up within. His whiskers twitched slightly as he smiled brilliantly.

"Well after he wakes up of course." Ignoring all of my training I wiped around just in time to see a massive tsunami rise up from the lake. Berating my self, I turned back to see the fading sparkle of a smile vanish to wind. My sebons stacked neatly in a small pile on the branch.

* * *

"Nice work there Naruto, getting stuck in a tree."

"At lest the enemy kicked me, your own sensei kicked you."

"It was to get me clear of the mist nin!"

"So?! He still likes you less than he likes me."

"Just because you bribe him with those stupid books of his."

"Your still just mad he managed to get you with his thousand years of pain."

"You swore never to speak of that!"

Naurto and Sasuke had been bickering back and forth since they argued over who had to carry Kakashi -sensei back. I hummed happily as I manged to foster the job of on them. Since I was the lest hurt out of our team, I should be the one to stand watch. Tenzo-san stood slightly bemused to my left, as he watched the two argue, dragging the unconscious body of Kakashi sensei towards the run down village that was once the largest port of the wave country.

I had know that there were places where things were not as nice as Konoha. That were run down, poor and dangerous. Places that never had a feeling of home or safety. Where bad things happened because there was no one willing to help you.

The wooden huts and houses looked rotted and sick. Some leaned at odd angles and others seemed to be missing large chunks of wall, roof or floors. They were all filthy, and not one had even a coat paint. They mirrored the people who sat listlessly lost in their own miseries. Tenzo-san lead us down the main road, I could see off in the distance a set of buildings that appeared large and in slightly better shape. Most likely the market district I thought. A pair of children wandered through, filthy rags and almost as dark as the dirt around them. I doubted either had a good bath in some time. I twinged wanting to help yet unable to even do more than spare glance. The fights I had with my mother and father seemed so idiotic now compared to this mess.

Most of the inhabitants paid no head as we marched through the village. I found this odd but every one seemed as lost as I was.

We wandered off winding our way throw the ransacked buildings, I made a few notes of the buildings here and there, so I could find my way about later.

* * *

They carried the man into the spare room, not that it mattered to me. They were dead all ready. Gato would kill them, and that would be that. I peered around the edge of my room after they all had passed my room door. Inching around the corner I caught a glimpse of them slinging the scare crow like one onto the futon that had been rolled out for them. The long haired blond slumped down against the wall, his eyes closed. I think he was sleeping though I didn't know for sure. I managed a few glances at the other two before I was quickly ushered out of the way.

How stupid I thought, the dead sleep forever.

* * *

There are two kinds of dreams a god hand has. First is the nonsense, the endless bowl of ramen that I couldn't make, or pin the tail on the fox god. The second was dreams of the past. Spot on and never changed. In my dazed mind I knew it wasn't real, my soul couldn't.

It was a grassy knoll on a world that had no name. Nor much of any thing else, just endless tall grass as far you could see. There was a few large rock formations scattered about. The land sloped back and we stood on the edge of a small crescent. I had half hoped the gate I had used to bring us here would have been intercepted. A sure fire method to avoid doing what I had to do.

It was something she had begged for, to see another planet. I caved eventually, she was so smart, so intelligent. Miniko was born in a small town and had sought knowledge on all things. She had left for the royal collage and lived in mostly seclusion while she earned honor after honor and respect for the intelligences that I needed. I still remembered distinctly are first meeting memory just as I did every thing else.

It was wrong really what I had to do, a conflict I never understood. I wanted to love her, I really did. So much so that it hurt. I couldn't understand why I wasn't able, to I was young far to young to know the names of Ozanele or Teatragatic. The sins were still so fresh in my mind, so relevant in the training hammered into me by the damn fox, and I chose to follow the fourth sin.

Once we had arrived, she practically glowed. Eyes darting about she threw her arms about me, before she drew out a small notebook and began to furiously scribble whatever notes she happened to be thinking about. It was quick, necessary even. I couldn't understand, it had to be done.

I snapped her in half.

I put her body back together afterwords, using what limited mending _isha rashins _I knew to return her to the state she was in prior to her brutal severing.

I still don't understand, even now four and a half eras later. I knew why, but I never understood.

Reflections later helped make sense of what I felt. I wondered if I had a home, a village that was all I knew, and I had come to love all those within. Maybe I would want to protect them all. If someone showed up and laid waste to my village, and than spouted something about peace, I would probably never understand.

I stood there trying desperately not to memorize the details that I had seen. Despite nothing being physically wrong with her, I had done more than just shatter the bones. Eyes half open yet still unmoving, no rise and fall of her chest, no blinking, no slight twitches to any limbs or any thing that made it appear that she was once alive.

I felt the shift of reality around me as I turned to face the one who intrude upon the broken state the world was in. It was the first time I had actually met The free god hand. Standing on a rock the air hazy about him, the only visible sign about him that he had traveled to the planet. He walked up to us, slowly, a methodical step by step. His feet were lost in the high grass, the black cloth of his sleeves fell long just short of his finger tips. His brown eye open, I had heard that it was something left over from a ritual he did after he received his name. It took time but he arrived a few meters away from me.

"Your not the first, nor will you be the last." His words were cold comforts. It took every thing I had in the half lucid state of mind I was in to focus past the details of the event itself, far better to focus on why I came to respect Talus Azaroth instead. I said nothing as he looked at me with both eyes open. It was hard to look at him, he looked tired with out having anything to show for it. Eyes half open, but no dark purplish circles under his eyes, or creases or lines in his face to be accented on. When I didn't speak he simply continued, It felt like he had said the words before.

"Ozanele split his soul apart and duplicated himself several hundred thousand times, this army of god hands took control of the seals. Foolish to believe that even an army of god hands could so blatantly defile the sins. The Almighty ended him just the same." He was quite for one more moment, before he began once more. "Teatragatic would say that such an army could destroy the _Isha Isha Di Ton. _Considering his fate however." He turned and began to pace away, back to his point of entry into this

world.

After I had became Jasnee isha Sasarius, all my emotions had seemed muted, like something had reduced their potency against me. In that instant as I stood over the body of the first person I could remember having the audacity to love, rage and anger broke over me.

"You can't do this bastard! You throw out a few lines that don't mean shit and expect me to be awed!? By the fucking fox god who the hell do you think you are?" One of the things we are taught is to pay attention to the words you use. Not that I even knew what I was saying at this point. My rage had transferred entirely into the primal force of hatred. My words spilled from me with venom and scorn, my presences echoed the words, the vast grassland around me flattened as my power boiled around me. My rage took the form of the wind about me flattening the stalks around me leaving the ones Miniko was laying on unbroken.

He turned and fixed me with his blue eye, his words carried threw the roaring wind. Despite being a dozen meters away I heard them clearly. "The strong do not open themselves to such self destruction. They walk forward." He turned and the stark white symbol on the back of his black robes. Sharper than the blades he carried his voice still a whisper, piercing as his gaze had been. "Ask Daragazin about The _isha sinfaxis_, Suisho. Perhaps that god hands story can show you how to be a proper god hand. A good god hand buries his mistaken past, never forgeting, but never allowing it undo him, or destroy him." With that he was gone.

Still standing than frothing with the power of my hatred and anger, I drove my strength into the ground. The wind gained edges and dug small furrows in the ground before it scythed away the tall grass. The resultant pattern was an intricately built _Isha_ _rashins_. Breaking the outer most circle of the pattern activated its effect. The atmosphere of the planet collapsed, I had ceased listing to the noise it made, only silence affected me now. The atoms of the air aligned themselves as it condensed. A single wedge of air, four hundred killometers along the edge, and a few dozen tall formed. Minko's body alone resist the effects of the vacuum that had form as my _rashins_ came to a close. It was foolish to bury her here, she would of hated it, so I encased her in a thin shell of air, one that would last forever if it had to. My wedge completed itself the entire atmosphere compressed into a single mass of air. The edge of it a blade of densely packed air atoms a hundred kilometers wide and now stretched greater than the planet beneath it. I drove it down ward.

I fled after that. The air split the planet in half like it was a watermelon. Once split the air released the energy that had been stored from the compression flinging both halves of the planet on courses to Almighty knew where I didn't bother to find out. I ran back to ground, the protection of my god. My strength had flowed too freely, too unfocused, I was weak, easy pray to any thing that wanted to take a shot at me.

Miniko's body was flung out into the vast space of the realm we were in. Perhaps she would land on some moon somewhere amongst the stars, she would have liked that. I clutched the journal she had brought with her, the only thing I ever kept.

* * *

Naurto had stopped responding to any thing we said, given how worked to the bone I felt, I understood.

She may not have fought much but she was there just the same. The spiking fear, the rise and fall of each breath seemed endless in the hazy wash of battle. It wasn't the heroic affair or silent struggle of detachment I had thought it would. The blood lust was something I wasn't prepared for.

Sakura had examined Kakashi-sensei and announced as best as she could tell that he was merely suffering from Chakra exhaustion. Naurto hadn't respond to her, and a cursory examination showed that he didn't appear any worse for wear either, so we left him be. They were prepared.

It hurt to think that I couldn't handle that haze. Never again, I vowed, never would such unrelenting blood lust stop me, render me impotent. I was not prepared.

Never again, no mater what the cost.

* * *

Waiting was something I had taken for granted, it really was. Though after today, I would rather wait than have fashion challenged jonin attempt to kill me.

Still we sat, Kakashi-sensei passed out entirely, Sasuke looked exhausted, and Naurto was still sleeping on the side tucked against the wall.

His hair was wild, spilling over his shoulders as he had his back to the wall. His eyes closed, and his mouth was half open. I still didn't know why he wore the long robe, or why everything he owned had fox tails of some variety over it. I couldn't tell anyone why I felt like I had known Naurto for so much longer than just two weeks. I really wondered if things were going to slow down at all. Three enemy ninja in such a short time span meant that life was way to exciting. It made me think if my father and mother remembered to lock the front door, I always reminded them to make sure, yet they still forgot at lest twice a week.

A slight pang resonated over me as I realized it was yet another thing I just didn't know about Naurto. Something I didn't know about Sasuke either. He hadn't responded well when I was talking about my parents. Maybe I should ask...

Naurto's blue eyes finally fluttered open, his whiskers twitched and he blinked in that way you can only manage when you just wake up. It was so adorable I almost cooed and scratched underneath his chin like he was a cat.

He stared at me a moment, his head slightly cocked as if searching for an answer. It didn't last long before he stood and simply walked out of the room. I blinked for a moment, it hadn't happened very fast but it felt very sudden. I had half expected him to say something brightly or exclaim how cool, or awesome that we were and such, before shamelessly asking me on a date. I wondered why I felt a pang bounce across me.

I chanced a glance at Sasuke-kun. His hair was still a tangled mess, his cloths dirty and eyes blood shot. Despite that he was still holding his cool calm collected self, if not slightly strained.

"That wasn't like him." I almost jumped and snapped my eyes to meet his. For an instant I thought his eyes flashed a crimson rose that wasn't the same steel he had burned me with last time. It was gone the instant it appeared before that same intense heat that had rendered me immobile before it smoldered any response I would have made.

* * *

Did you know?

Could you have known?

Would you do everything the same?

Did you Naurto Uzumaki when you failed to be a proper god hand that you would find Sakura Haruno?

Did they know, those god and god hands about to die?

Did the untold trillions of lives, billions of species, were about to cease?

And would I change it?

It was the last question that would bother them, those victims whose lives were measured short. Who was I to decide who lived who died? What gave me the rights to play with their existences?

I am _Isha Isha Diton._Talus Azaroth regularly attempted to kill me. The only entity in reality who tried to kill me. I who head the council of existences. The one who demands its gatherings, who enforces its laws. The entity that could on a whim force every god, demon, deity and _isha sinfaxis _to convene for nothing more than to tell them that it would be raining tomorrow, over all of them. Who was I to earn such convenience and sway over a force of beings that would reduce reality to the nothing that it came.

I am god.

Did you know, Ia Samuel Cole, that you would destroy the planet of your birth? That you father would look at you and state, "If the world is going to end, what does it mater? I won't still be here." You were a mere sixty two thousand years at that time, Talus Azaroth, struggling to remember a time that your body wasn't scared with the mark of The god Twisted.

Did you know, Naurto Uzumaki, that you would execute your own father? Standing atop the greatest of frogs? Such an odd thing, snatched by the fox god from assured death at the hands of gravity. Yet another odd occurrence, taking a human from out side of continuality, almost undone if I'm to be honest, twelve cases, out of thirty seven of them to occur. But than all twelve had fallen upon something unique about. The god hand of the goddess of ooze, a strange fellow he was even by the standards of the pantheon, did manage to stay alive for ten eras before Tatartrus obliterated him. It made for highly specialized god hands. In his case, luck.

I often rolled the dice in his favor, chance something unheard of in the newest ranks that filled the _isha sinfaxis._ After all, the lessons of all god hands said there was no such thing, to be expected when they could manipulate events on an unheard of scale. Coincidence did not exist for them, but for the elder god hands...

They had learned that my presences in all affairs was so subtle, so lightly played, that chance was the only the most apt of descriptions. And I played young Naurto's dice very well indeed. Though he had begun to show more fore site; setting up the deaths of every spark of divinity that had been placed on that world.

Did you know Naurto Uzumaki, I know I certainly do, but will you?

* * *

A/N: Amazingly enough finally catching up to the present story of Naurto killed just about an desire to write any of this. However at long last i have posted the pair of these despite the difficulty in deciding which story and things needed to be stated first.

At this point however I've slightly lost thread with what has and has not been said so if there is any huge errors or minor alterations to formatting, its due the time length involved. Feel free to point them out to me if you note one as i sure as heck won't be able to tell at this point.

As for Caladice and Nandasca...

One of the things Naurto's author does is pair up all his characters. All the interaction between every one is done almost exclusively in pairs, switching between them often. For instance Sasuke and Itachi is one, we see something entirely different when Sasuke and Naurto interact ect. Most of the time his villains function in pairs, and when alone the often interact with the protagonist alone. When in groups we often see him focusing on just the two before shifting to a different set. While i would like to say its what i had in mind when i created Naurto's god hand counter part, a role that i couldn't steel any characters for since i wanted them all to remain in cannon in case i needed them, i intend to take advantage of that.

As for their reason for existing within the story its self, they are mainly there to allow me to not force Naurto to explain every action he takes. Which will help greatly when i have him do something relly cool, like blow a planet in half. I have a few action oriented chapters that would be severely cramped if i had to explain why he could do what he did rather than what he is actually doing.

All aside, i feel like I'm failing as a fanfiction writer because i don't have a crossover to my name. There for i am posting this challenge. I will write a Ranma 1/2 crossover with any other series, no mater what it is.

Still need a beta and will now commence work on the next section of this story


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